Turning the Corner: Drug Innovations in the Neuroscience Field

Neurological pharmaceuticals have historically lagged when compared to other fields and disease areas. Recent success, however, has been seen in MS and epilepsy, while changes in clinical trial structures are showing promising ields in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Experts on this panel will discuss the challenges in the neuroscience drug industry, what can be done, and what the market - and patients - can expect in the next few years.

Who is Paying for Medical Innovation?

Hospitals everywhere have been directed to improve outcomes while at the same time keeping a lid on costs. While Health IT solutions have been build to contain cost, billions are being spent by pharmaceutical and device companies to treat debilitating diseases. Experts on this panel will discuss how the industry is balancing this dichotomy, and try to answer as a group, who is ultimately paying for medical innovation?

Investing in Healthcare's Future

Experts discuss the best investment opportunities in the neurosciences marketplace by reviewing the R&D efforts of major companies, the devies and drugs that are currently in the pipeline, and the surge of Health IT companies that are making real, investable impacts.

"Top 10" Medical Innovations: 2016

Cleveland Clinic's Top 10 list of breakthrough technologies for the coming year has become an international sensation. Join us again as Dr. Mike Roizen and a panel of ten of the Clinic's physician leaders roll out these much anticipated selections.

Marc Harrison, MD, serves as Chief of International Business Development for Cleveland Clinic. In this newly created enterprise role, Dr. Harrison leads the creation and execution of Cleveland Clinic's international strategy, including identifying target markets and novel partnerships.

Dr. Harrison joined the staff of the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital in 1999. Subsequently, he served as Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Critical Care, Associate Chief of Staff, Director of Medical Operations and Chief Medical Operations Officer. As Chief Medical Operations Officer at Cleveland Clinic, he was responsible for streamlining the Hospital Transfer process, creating a variety of clinical services, as well as revamping the day-to-day operations of many aspects of patient care. In his most recent role as CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Dr. Harrison led the evolution of the project from concept to fully fledged operational quarternary medical center.

He holds a medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School, a Master’s in Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a certificate in Managing Healthcare Delivery from Harvard Business School. Dr. Harrison is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. He serves on the board of directors of AmCham Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.

An All-American Triathlete and seven-time Ironman, Dr. Harrison and his pediatrician wife, Mary Carole, and their children live in Abu Dhabi.

Alex Taylor is executive vice president for Cox Enterprises, a leading communications, media and automotive services company. He oversees the company’s long-term investment and growth strategies, including the Cox Innovation Fund and True North Venture Partners. Taylor is a fourth-generation member of the Cox family and serves on Cox Enterprises’ board of directors. Taylor previously served as senior vice president of field operations for Cox Communications, the company’s broadband and cable subsidiary. He oversaw operations of all of Cox’s cable systems, serving six million customers in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, New England, Oklahoma, Omaha and Virginia. Prior to Cox Communications, he was the executive vice president of Cox Media Group where he oversaw its television, radio, newspaper and digital properties in Atlanta that reach nearly four million adults each week. He also was responsible for the company’s media properties in Alabama, Ohio and Texas. He also served as a reporter and editor with various Cox media properties. Taylor is an avid outdoorsman and environmentalist. He chairs American Rivers’ board of directors and is a board member for Food Well Alliance and PATH Foundation. He authored the book “The Longest Cast: The Fly-Fishing Journey of a Lifetime” and donated the royalties to charity. He serves on Vanderbilt University’s board of trust and is a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta. Taylor received a bachelor's degree in science with a focus on human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Machado is the newly appointed Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute and the Charles and Christine Carroll Family Endowed Chair in Functional Neurosurgery. He is also the director for the Center for Neurological Restoration houses all clinical activities related to movement disorders, chronic pain and headaches at Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute as well as functional and stereotactic neurosurgery, deep brain stimulation and other forms of neuromodulation. Dr. Machado performs deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery for patients with Parkinson’s disease, tremor, dystonia and obsessive-compulsive disorder as well as surgical procedures for patients with trigeminal neuralgia, intractable pain syndromes and spasticity.

Dr. Andre Machado received his medical degree from the University of Sao Paulo in 1997. He completed his residency in the same institution in 2003 and obtained his Ph.D. in 2004. He came to the Cleveland Clinic in 2004, completed his fellowship in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery in 2006 and has been on the staff of the Cleveland Clinic since then.

Dr. Machado is the program director for education in Stereotactic. Dr. Machado is also Staff in the Department of Neurosurgery with Joint Appointments in the Department of Neuroscience and in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. He is the current Chairman for the Joint Pain Section of the CNS/AANS and he is a Board Member of the American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.

Dr. Machado leads several deep brain stimulation and neuromodulation clinical trials as well as laboratory research. His research in deep brain stimulation for thalamic pain syndrome was awarded the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator’s Award in 2009. In addition, he conducts deep brain stimulation research for treatment refractory depression as well as obsessive compulsive disorder. His laboratory in the Lerner Research Institute is focused in developing new strategies for utilizing neuroprosthetic devices such as DBS to improve post-stroke rehabilitation. His current NIH funded research is aimed at evaluating the effects of deep cerebellar stimulation on post-stroke perilesional plasticity and recovery of function.

Dr. Machado is the author of several peer reviewed publications and chapters in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery.

Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the director of MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering. He joined CSAIL as a principal investigator in 2011, and became an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the same year. He received an A.B. in economics from Yale University in 1980, and an A.M. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1984. He began his academic career at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he was W.P. Carey Assistant Professor from 1984 to 1987 and W.P. Carey Associate Professor from 1987 to 1988. His research spans several fields including financial asset-pricing models; derivatives and risk management; hedge funds; systemic risk, financial regulation, and government policy; computational algorithms, machine learning, and secure multi-party computation; evolutionary, neurobiological, and computational models of risk preferences, economic behavior, and intelligence; and most recently, new financing models for funding translational medicine in cancer, Alzheimer’s, and rare diseases. He has published numerous articles in academic journals and trade publications, and has authored several books including The Econometrics of Financial Markets, A Non-Random Walk Down Wall Street, and Hedge Funds: An Analytic Perspective. He is currently co-editor of the Annual Review of Financial Economics and an associate editor of the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Portfolio Management, and the Journal of Investment Management. He serves on advisory committees for the CFTC, NY Fed, OFR, and SEC, and is founder, chairman, and chief investment strategist of AlphaSimplex Group, LLC, an investment advisory firm.

Anne Avidon is Head of Global Health Innovation within the Life Sciences Organization of the British Government. In this role, Anne helps shape the strategy for industry engagement with UK Life Science stakeholders and supports LSO’s work with Government Ministers and the Office for Life Sciences. She also leads on LSO’s strategic engagement with Britain’s National Health Service and supports the delivery of high value inward investment projects. Prior to this, Anne was Vice Consul and USA Sector Lead for Healthcare at UK Trade & Investment in Boston. In this role, she advised UK companies on their international business strategy and helped them commercialize their medical technologies in the US market. She also worked with US firms to help them understand the strengths of Britain's Healthcare and Life Sciences sector in order to promote cross-border collaboration and inward investment into the UK.

Armond Budish took office as the County Executive in January of 2015. He is the second Executive to serve in the County’s history. As County Executive, Mr. Budish has outlined a forward looking and innovative agenda to improve the lives of County residents. “Jobs, jobs, and jobs” are the top priorities of his administration. As the Executive, Mr. Budish is committed to creating economic growth and opportunity, by taking a “head and heart” approach to problem solving. His plan to integrate County services across all silos will result in a “no wrong door” for County residents and businesses to improve service delivery. As a large provider of both job training and human services, Cuyahoga County will have a specific emphasis on stabilizing and training individuals so that they are prepared for successful employment. The Budish Administration’s multi-faceted approach will take advantage of all resources- from apprenticeships to scholarships- to align the job skills of County residents to the job opportunities available today. To help people become self-sustaining, the County must become a major jobs generator. Expanding current businesses, growing start-ups, and attracting new businesses aligned with our key assets, such as Lake Erie, manufacturing, and health care, is a key focus of the administration. In short, “We must think big, use technology, be bold, and take some responsible risks.” Effective & efficient government is a priority of the Budish administration. Valuing and investing in County employees will enable better service for County residents. Cuyahoga County will be governed using a metrics-oriented philosophy to determine targets, and shape future goals. The County will be an active partner with outside groups and other governments to ensure quality service delivery. Lastly, improving the everyday quality of life for County residents is a fundamental mission. Cuyahoga County will be committed to supporting and building upon Greater Cleveland’s momentum, ensuring that all County residents have opportunities to succeed. The County is diverse and its 59 communities have unique needs. Consequently, the Budish administration is developing strategic partnerships that can be responsive to both shared and community specific needs while anticipating future growth targets. Prior to arriving in his current post, Budish served four terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, including a term as the Speaker of the House and two terms as the Minority Leader. Mr. Budish is also known by many County residents for his private sector career as a consumer and elder law attorney. Founder of the law firm Budish, Solomon, Steiner, & Peck, Mr. Budish became a nationally known expert as an elder law attorney through his best-selling books, consumer advice column, “You and the Law” published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer for 24 years, and his 16 year career as the host of the television show, “Golden Opportunities”, an informational show for seniors and their families. He ran for elective office for the first time in 2006, once his two sons, Ryan and Daniel, had been successfully launched into college. He currently resides happily in Beachwood, Ohio with his wife of over three decades Amy.

Asheesh Saksena is executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Cox Communications. He is responsible for corporate strategy, strategic partnerships and incubating new businesses. Saksena has over 20 years of experience in strategy and operations. Prior to Cox, Saksena served as deputy chief strategy officer and senior vice president at Time Warner Cable, responsible for corporate strategy and business development. Prior to joining Time Warner Cable, he was a partner at Accenture where he was responsible for strategy practice serving cable and wireless service providers. During his tenure at Accenture, Saksena won the prestigious Ken Ernst Award for Strategy & Innovation twice, published extensive thought leadership and co-lead the global strategic initiative on Innovation and New Product Development. Saksena began his career with the Tata Group as an Officer of Tata Administrative Service. His tenure included several management positions, with his last assignment being President of TataFone. Saksena has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, and Masters in Business Administration.

National spokesperson for the American Academy of Neurology and the American Brain Foundation. National speaker, author, and advocate. 2006 SuperBowl Champion with the Indianapolis Colts, and father to 4 beautiful girls.

Ben Pless has more than 25 years of experience developing and bringing to market implantable medical devices. Prior to joining ATI as its CEO, he was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technical Officer of NeuroPace, developing electronic implantable devices for the treatment of epilepsy. Prior to joining NeuroPace in 2000, he was responsible for worldwide development activities for the Cardiac Rhythm Management Division of St. Jude Medical, Inc. Mr. Pless previously served as Vice President of product development for Ventritex, Inc. and General Manager of its Maven Capacitors division until the sale of the company to St. Jude Medical in 1997. He was a founder of Ventritex where he was instrumental in the development of one of the first implantable cardiac defibrillators. His career began at Intermedics, where he was a development engineer for implantable pacemakers. Mr. Pless is a member of the board of directors of several start-up medical device companies and regularly provides consulting services to the venture capital community. Mr. Pless received a B.S.E.E. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and attended graduate school at Rice University. He is a named inventor on approximately 100 patents and patent applications.

Bertha Coombs is a reporter for CNBC, covering financial markets, business news stories and health care throughout the business day. She is based at the Nasdaq Marketsite in Times Square.

Her health care coverage at CNBC has ranged from covering the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the failed launch of the Obamacare health insurance exchanges, to how cancer researchers are using IBM's Watson to improve cancer care, and how doctors are using mobile technology to treat patients in their own homes. She also covered the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the impact of the financial crisis of 2008, and reported on the oil markets from the floor of the New York Mercantile exchange.

Before joining CNBC, Coombs was a reporter and anchor for the pioneering online business network, Yahoo Finance Vision, and served as a freelance reporter for the former CNNfn financial network. Prior, she served as a reporter for ABC News One, and a substitute anchor for "World News Now" and "World News This Morning."

She began her career in general news, with previous reporting and anchoring positions at WABC-TV in New York, WPLG-TV in Miami and WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut.

Coombs is a graduate of Yale University and was awarded the Leo Beranek Reporter Training Fellowship at WCVB-TV in Boston. Born in Havana, Cuba, she speaks fluent Spanish.

Dr. Beth McQuiston is a board certified neurologist, registered dietitian and medical director for Abbott’s Diagnostics business. She actively participates in the evaluation of a number of neuroscience related biomarkers to be used in the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of disease. Her current areas of focus include research into biomarkers for use in traumatic brain injury, including concussions. Prior to her work at Abbott, Dr. McQuiston integrated her holistic perspective and nutrition training into the care of many different types of neurology patients. She obtained her medical doctorate degree at Rush University and completed her medical training at the University of Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and Harbor UCLA Medical Center. A licensed physician, Dr. McQuiston is a member of the TBI Endpoints Development (TED) Initiative and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

Bob Berkopec is vice president for Optum’s Innovation, Research & Development team. In this role, Berkopec oversees strategy and delivery of innovative solutions for the both UnitedHealthcare and Optum. His responsibilities include developing new and innovative approaches that serve an array of health care stakeholders, including consumers, providers, employers, and payers. Berkopec is also instrumental in leading the design and implementation of processes and best practices which contribute to an overall mindset and culture of innovation. Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group in 2004, Berkopec held leadership roles in Technology, Finance, and Operations across a number of industries. While working for a major system consulting group, he created new practice areas which contributed to the overall profitability of the firm. Berkopec also drove operational and system efficiencies while part of a major banking organization. Berkopec earned his Bachelor of Science in Business as well as his MBA at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management.

Brad Perkins, MD, MBA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Perkins is a visionary physician, scientist, and executive who is responsible for leading all clinical and therapeutic operations at the HLI. This includes collecting and utilizing phenotype data, development of the consumer clinics business, and guiding stem cell therapeutics. Prior to joining HLI, Dr. Perkins was Executive Vice President for Strategy and Innovation, and Chief Transformation Officer at Vanguard Health Systems, a large multi-state, for-profit, integrated health services provider with nearly 46,000 employees. He helped transform Vanguard from a traditional fee for service healthcare model, to a fee for value, “population health” model. Some of his innovative solutions there included: establishing Accountable Care Organizations to improve primary care, implementing an award winning tele-radiology program, and starting a $167 million venture capital fund to support Vanguard’s transformation programs. Dr. Perkins began his career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1989 after completing his residency training and chief residency in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. At the CDC he led some of the most important and high profile programs and published more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He first joined and then led the Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch where he investigated global bacterial disease epidemics. He co-discovered the bacteria which causes Cat Scratch Diseases and conducted translational research leading to development of several new bacterial meningitis and pneumonia vaccines. In 2001 Dr. Perkins led the investigations into the anthrax attacks in the United States, the largest and highest profile investigation ever conducted by CDC. In 2005 he was appointed CDC’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, a position in which he managed a $11.2 billion budget, and 15,000 employees with offices in more than 50 countries. Working closely with the CDC Director, he built a $2 billion state-of-the-art emergency response capability and positioned the improvement of population health as a focus of the healthcare reform movement within the White House administration at that time. Dr. Perkins is a member of the RAND Health Board, and he is the chairman of the advisory board for Esther Dyson’s nonprofit, HICCup, sponsor of the “Way to Wellville” community health competition. He received his BA in Microbiology and his MD from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and an MBA from Emory University. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

Brad is the CEO and Founder of Calaveras Creek Capital, collaborating with strategic partners in equity investing to facilitate innovation strategies. He is a member of the board of directors at Nevro (NVRO), Cleveland Clinic Innovations, and on a corporate venture advisory board for Silicon Valley Bank, along with sitting on the board of several private companies.

Brad was Head of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) from 2012 to 2015. JJDC is Johnson & Johnson’s venture investing arm and has investors based in Si-Valley, Boston, Shanghai, London and Tel Aviv. He established JJDC’s west coast office in 1997 and was an investor in medical devices, healthtech, and biotech from 1992-2012.

Prior to joining JJDC, Dr. Vale supported Johnson & Johnson’s medical device businesses at the Corporate Office of Science and Technology, leading exploratory efforts in several areas, including biomaterials, intra-operative diagnostics, and lasers in medicine. He began his JNJ career at Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, working on preclinical studies in wound closure, microsurgery, new business development, and a coronary artery bypass graft internal venture that was spun out of Ethicon. Dr. Vale has other experience in medical device research and development, including blood-compatible polymers, novel methods for tissue closure, and hyaluronic acid for post-operative adhesion prevention.

Dr. Vale received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Iowa State University and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Washington State University.

Brett Wall serves as President of the Neurovascular business at Medtronic, which is part of the company’s Restorative Therapies Group. Brett, a seasoned medical device executive with 25 years of experience in the industry, manages a team of more than 1,000 individuals, including all business functions across all geographies. Prior to joining Medtronic, Brett served as Covidien’s President, Neurovascular and International, where he managed all commercial activities and functions of the business resulting in a doubling of revenue from 2011 to 2015. Previously, Brett served as Senior Vice President and President, Neurovascular and Senior Vice President and President, International at ev3, Inc. From 2000 to 2008, Brett held positions of Vice President, Marketing for the Neurovascular and Peripheral Vascular divisions at Micro Therapeutics until its merger with ev3. Previously, Brett worked at Boston Scientific as the Director of Marketing, Cardiovascular, Asia Pacific and Marketing Manager, Japan, where he was responsible for the Interventional Cardiology product lines within the Asia-Pacific region. Brett’s career in the medical device industry has also featured positions of increasing responsibility at C.R. Bard, where he was responsible for marketing the company’s entire suite of urological products. Brett currently serves on the board executive committee for OCTANe, a group that promotes technical growth and expertise in the greater Orange County, California area. He is also a member of the CEO Roundtable at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, Brett served as Chairman of the Heart and Stroke Ball for the American Heart Association, Orange County Chapter. Brett earned his bachelor’s degree in Comprehensive Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He is a resident of Southern California.

Dr. Brian Donley began his new role as Chief of Staff and Chief of Clinical Operations of the Cleveland Clinic on January 1, 2015. Just prior to that, he served as President of the Community Hospitals of the Cleveland Clinic Health System and eighteen Family Health Centers from January 2014 through December 2014. Dr. Donley is also Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Dr. Donley attended the University of Notre Dame for his undergraduate studies, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Donley completed a fellowship in orthopaedic foot and ankle surgery at the Campbell Clinic in Memphis, TN. He joined Cleveland Clinic’s Orthopaedic & Rheumatologic Institute in 1996, serving in various roles over the years, including Vice Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics, Director of the Foot and Ankle Center, Director of the Foot and Ankle Fellowship, and Director of Research and Education for Foot and Ankle Surgery. He is part of a team of orthopaedic consultants for the Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the National Hockey League Players’ Association. Dr. Donley was a member of the development team for the Salto Talaris total ankle prosthesis and performed the first surgery in the world with this ankle implant at Cleveland Clinic in 2006. He owns three patents and presently works on the development of a novel intraosseous minimally invasive implant fixation system for the distal extremities. He has published over 80 scientific articles and has made over 200 presentations regionally, nationally and internationally. In 2008 Dr. Donley established and chaired the Cleveland Clinic’s Professional Conduct Committee, a role he held until August 2013. He served as President of Lutheran Hospital from January 2012 to October 2013. During his time as President he led Lutheran Hospital to a Press Ganey Commitment to Excellence Award for Patient Satisfaction. Lutheran Hospital also became ranked as the #3 safest hospital in America by Consumers Report. During the fall of 2013, Dr. Donley completed an eight-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. After returning from business school, Dr. Donley was appointed as Vice President of Cleveland Clinic Community Hospitals and Chief of Regional Hospital Medical Affairs and Quality.

Brian Hrouda, Director, Sales and Marketing, Norman Noble, Inc. Brian Hrouda is Director of Sales and Marketing for Norman Noble Inc., the world’s largest laser contract manufacturer of nitinol devices and vascular implants. With more than 15 years’ experience in the medtech innovations field, Hrouda specializes in providing technical sales & consulting and design for manufacturability for prototype-through-production manufacturing of next generation products. Over his tenure with Norman Noble he has engineered strategic partnerships with 18 of the largest medical device OEM’s and numerous start-up companies. A frequent contributor to trade journals and industry periodicals, Hrouda also supported the creation of a Nitinol Commercialization Accelerator through the Ohio Third Frontier Wright Projects Program, a collaboration between Norman Noble, Inc., NASA Glenn Research Center, Case Western Reserve University, University of Toledo, and Cleveland Clinic.

Brian is responsible for leading the Global Healthcare Innovation Alliance program, a network of health systems, universities and corporate partners dedicated to advancing patient care through collaborative innovation. Currently, Cleveland Clinic is working with MedStar Health, The Innovation Institute, Marshfield Clinic, The University of Notre Dame and ProMedica. In addition, Brian is also involved in the managing the relationship with corporate and government partners; Parker Hannifin, The Lubrizol Corporation, Cox Enterprises and NASA Glenn Research Center.

Prior to managing the Global Health Care Innovation Alliance, Brian was an Associate Director in Cleveland Clinic's Corporate Communications Department, overseeing not only the public and media relations for Innovations, but also the Heart and Vascular Institute, Orthopedics, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Global Patient Services, Bioethics and Wellness. Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic, Brian served as the Director of Marketing and Communications for National Stroke Association, a national non-profit dedicated to reducing the incidence and impact of stroke.

Brian Pomper is a partner in the Public Law & Policy group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. He formerly served as chief international trade counsel to former Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). In that role, he was responsible for advising Chairman Baucus and other members of the Senate Finance Committee on all aspects of the Committee’s international trade and economic agenda. In his current practice, Brian offers public policy, political, and strategic business advice to Fortune 500 companies and industry associations on a wide range of policy issues, including international trade and intellectual property. He represents companies before Congress, the White House, and federal agencies on a diverse set of public policy matters, including advocacy and lobbying on domestic and foreign legislation and regulations; market access problems, foreign investment, and international trade negotiations and trade disputes; and intellectual property, international tax, and customs issues. Brian also serves as an adjunct professor teaching international trade policy and politics at George Washington’s Graduate School of Political Management, and as an Educational Counselor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He received a J.D. from the Cornell University Law School and is a member of the U.S. patent bar.

Bruce Broussard, President and CEO, joined Humana in 2011. Under his leadership, Humana is creating an integrated care delivery model that is expected to drive lower costs, enhanced quality, improved outcomes and a better member experience. With its holistic approach, Humana is dedicated to improving the health of the communities it serves by making it easy for people to achieve their best health.

Prior to joining Humana, Bruce was Chief Executive Officer of McKesson Specialty/US Oncology, Inc. US Oncology was purchased by McKesson in December 2010. At US Oncology, Bruce served in a number of senior executive roles, including Chief Financial Officer, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board.

Bruce plays a leadership role in key business advocacy organizations such as the Business Roundtable, the American Heart Association CEO Roundtable, and The Aspen Group. He is a member of the Board of Directors of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), also serving on AHIP’s Executive Committee.

C. Martin Harris, M.D., M.B.A., is the Chief Information Officer and Chairman of the Information Technology Division of Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Harris’ interest and expertise in the area of improving the practice of medicine through the innovative application of information technology is reflected in his serving on numerous national policy and technology organizations.
Appointed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Information Technology Standards Committee, which is charged with making recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for the electronic exchange and use of health information.

Past Chairman of the Board, Health and Human Services Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine, which serves as an advisory body to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

Presidential appointment to the Commission on Care for America’s Wounded Warriors

Presidential appointment to the Congressional Commission on Systemic Interoperability, which studies the steps required to develop a national health information network

Former Advisor to the Director of the National Institutes of Health

Dr. Harris received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. His residency training in general internal medicine was completed at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar fellowship in General Internal Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and holds a Masters in Busi¬ness Administration in Healthcare Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Camille Sabella, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Center for Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Cleveland Clinic Children’s, and serves as the Vice Chair for Education for the Pediatric Institute at Cleveland Clinic Children’s. Dr. Sabella received his M.D. degree from the Northeast Ohio Medical University, served a pediatric residency at Akron Children’s Hospital in Akron, Ohio and completed a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stanford University School of Medicine, in Stanford, California. Dr. Sabella is board-certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Dr. Sabella is the Chair of the Education Committee of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and a member of the Education Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatric Review and Educational Program in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Dr. Sabella has authored numerous original and review publications and book chapters, and has edited the Cleveland Clinic Intensive Review of Pediatrics textbook, which is currently in its fourth edition, and co-edited The Color Atlas of Pediatrics.

Dr. Carlos Peña is Division Director for the Division of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, in the Office of Device Evaluation, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Peña is involved in all aspects of the safety and effectiveness review of neurostimulation, neurodiagnostic, neurosurgical, neurotherapeutic, and physical medicine devices. Prior to joining CDRH, Dr. Peña served on detail as Assistant Director for Emerging Technologies in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Before joining OSTP/FDA, Dr. Peña served at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health. He completed his neurosciences doctoral training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He also attended the University of Connecticut for the Masters in Comparative Physiology, and the City College of New York, City University of New York, where he received a Bachelors specializing in Developmental Biology.

Carlos Rodarte, head of wearables business, develops and oversees strategic partnerships that help PatientsLikeMe’s clients use emerging technologies to understand more about disease characteristics, patient behavior, and long term care. From unique wearables studies in MS to breakthrough device studies in IPF, Carlos’s work produces the digital evidence that leads to new research insights into how patients experience and manage their disease.

Charis Eng, MD, PhD | Hardis Chair, Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic Charis Eng, MD, PhD is the founding Chair of the Genomic Medicine Institute and founding Director of the institute’s clinical component, the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare, at the Cleveland Clinic, as well as Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Author or co-author of >390 original peer-reviewed articles and holder of >$30 million in lifetime research grant funding, Dr. Eng was honored with the Sondra J. and Stephen R. Hardis Endowed Chair in Cancer Genomic Medicine in 2008 and the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship in 2009. More recently, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the US National Academies of Sciences for her achievements and leadership in genetics- and genomics-based research and personalized healthcare. Dr. Eng was recently named to the 400 most influential biomedical researchers in the world. At the clinical interface, Dr. Eng is acknowledged as one of the rare “go to” people on what is and how to implement genetic- and genomics-enabled personalized healthcare. As such, she served a 5-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics, is a member of the Clinical Science Committee of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, serving as its Chair 2007-09, and was appointed to the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society (2009-11). She also co-chaired their Task Force to examine whole genome sequencing for clinical application, and serves on the Expert Panel of the WHO Grand Challenges Project on Public Health Genomics in Developing Countries. Dr. Eng received her BA, MD and PhD from the University of Chicago, internal medicine residency at the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston and medical oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. She then underwent unique formal training in clinical cancer genetics at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Charles Stack is a successful serial entrepreneur, angel investor, startup advisor, and the co-founder of the startup accelerator Flashstarts. Flashstarts launches 12 new startups every year, providing a complete suite of services from formation, funding, and fund raising. Through our venture fund our startups follow-on funding and we offer angels a carefully selected startup investment portfolio. He also recently launched StartMart a 35,000 sq. ft. startup/co-working community in the Terminal Tower. He has a passion (and history) for building great startups. His 3 kids roll their eyes when he says I 'invented' Internet Retailing and Web Services, but it is literally true - see Books.com, Flashline and all the patents listed on linkedin.

Charlie Lougheed is co-founder, President, and Chief Strategy Officer of Explorys. He leads market research, advanced product design, marketing, pricing, and strategic development. Charlie has over 25 years of experience in technology leading both start-ups as well as large corporate divisions within ecommerce and technology companies. He co-founded Everstream with Stephen McHale in 1999 and served as Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, leading product strategy, business development, and engineering initiatives. Charlie co-led two successful rounds of private equity financing, as well as the merger of Ad Acoustics in 2002. Following a $15 million public merger with the Concurrent Computer Corporation in 2005, he became President of Everstream.

Charlie also has extensive experience within the financial services industry, having led National City Corporation’s consumer online banking division, as well as a position at PNC Financial as Senior Vice President of the online channel for its affluent customer segment. He has also served as Vice President of Internet Systems at KeyBank where he led the development of Key.com, online banking, and online loan application systems. Before joining KeyBank, Charlie served as Lead Consultant with the Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group.

Charlie is also an active leader in his community serving as Chairman of the Galen Foundation and Advisory Board Member to Genesis Inventions. Charlie has a BA degree from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

U.S. Country Head, President of Novartis Corporation and President of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Christi Shaw has oversight responsibility for 23,500 associates in U.S. Novartis Group companies over three divisions and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research for whom “More Moments for More Memories” isn’t just a mantra – it’s a mission. Through the lens of innovation, integrity and inclusion, she leads the US General Medicines business and Novartis Corporation operations, including U.S. site management, Public Affairs and Government Relations, as well as the overall management of US corporate reputation and social responsibility. Christi maintains an unwavering commitment to address the evolving needs of patients in collaboration with health care professionals, advocacy groups, payers and policy makers. Joining Novartis in July 2010 as Head of North America Oncology, Christi oversaw all operations including medical, commercial and staff functions for the U.S. and Canada. During her tenure, despite significant patent losses, the North America Oncology business achieved unprecedented positive expansion; successfully launching two new chemical entities and six new indications, contributing to the strong growth of strategic brands. These significant achievements won her the 2012 Chairman’s Award for Business Excellence. Her Oncology legacy also includes the groundbreaking “Signature” program, which is revolutionizing clinical trial recruitment by bringing the protocol to the patient versus the cancer patient to the protocol; speeding drug to patient from an average of six months to three-five weeks. Prior to Novartis, Christi was with Johnson & Johnson for eight years, most recently as Vice President, New Business Development & Strategic Analytics for Ethicon, where she drove strategy and expanded the pipeline. She developed new and adjacent product categories which led to two significant acquisitions while expanding the company’s business information and analytics capabilities. Subsequent to that position, Christi was Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Ethicon Products, working with R&D to accelerate the pipeline, resulting in six product launches in three years. In 2002, Christi joined Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Over the next five years she rose through a number of key positions with increasing responsibility at Janssen Psychiatry, Ortho Women’s Health & Urology and McNeil Pediatrics, winning coveted J&J Standards of Leadership Awards at every step. Throughout her more than 25 years of pharmaceutical and medical device experience, Christi has dedicated her career to empowering individuals through employee engagement, leadership development and diversity of thought. A champion of “Leading at all Levels,” Christi has worked across a myriad of therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, mental health, GI, oncology, infectious disease, rare diseases and Women’s Health. Her continued dedication to ensuring patient access to innovative medicines, along with her ability to mobilize organizations to deliver results that exceed expectations, are hallmarks of her leadership. Christi serves on the board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products; the Healthcare Leadership Council, committed to achieving the vision of a 21st century system that makes affordable, high-quality care accessible to all Americans; and the Young Women’s Leadership Network, empowering at-risk young women through education. A proud native of Iowa, Christi and her sisters own and manage a number of local farms, advancing innovative green methods to promote sustainability, conservation and forest preservation, while supporting future independent farmers. She earned an MBA from the University of Wisconsin and a BA from Iowa State University. Christi resides in New Jersey with her husband and son.

Dr. Christoph Zindel, M.D., is Senior VP, Head of Siemens MR and responsible for the global Magnetic Resonance business of Siemens Healthcare. Before returning to Siemens, he held the position of Senior VP, Head of Business Unit Hematology and Urinalysis for Beckman Coulter Inc.in Miami, Florida (USA). Prior to joining BEC, he was responsible for the radiopharmaceutical and cyclotron business of Siemens PETNET Solutions in Knoxville, Tennessee (USA). Previously, he held various positions in Marketing and R&D at Siemens MR in Germany. Dr. Zindel has worked in surgery for more than 4 years and has 17 years of experience in medical technology.

Chuck Clapton is Senior Vice President for Federal Advocacy at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Mr. Clapton leads PhRMA’s federal government affairs initiatives in advancing its legislative agenda, working with a wide array of stakeholders to develop and advocate for health policies that foster innovation and ensure patient access to new medicines in the US and around the world.

Prior to joining PhRMA, Chuck was a partner at the international law firm HoganLovells, where he represented health care clients on legislative and regulatory matters. Prior to joining HoganLovells, Clapton worked for 17 years on Capitol Hill, where he held several leadership positions on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Ways & Means Committee, Office of the Speaker and the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Mr. Clapton earned his J.D. from the Catholic University, Columbus School of Law and B.A. from Boston College. He currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and their two children.

Claudia Fan Munce is the Managing Director of the IBM Venture Capital Group and Vice President of IBM Corporate Development. The Venture Capital Group’s serves as the strategic unit of IBM that drives non organic growth business strategy of IBM through partnerships and acquisitions globally, focusing on growth markets and disruptive technology and business models. Ms. Munce joined IBM Research Division in 1985 and held many technical and business leadership positions. She is a board member of the National Venture Capital Association in the U.S., and chairwoman of board of the Global Corporate Venturing Group headquartered in London, and many other venture capital organizations around the world. She also served on the board of Latin American Venture Capital Association, Women in Leadership of Private Equity in China. Ms. Munce is frequently cited as a pioneer and the leader of the fast growing corporate venture community around the globe and contributed many articles on innovation in corporate venturing published by major publications. In March of 2015, The Worth Magazine named her as one of the 20 most powerful players in Silicon Valley. Ms. Munce was born in Taiwan and grew up in Brazil. She holds a MS degree in Computer Science Engineering from Santa Clara University, and a MBA degree from Stanford University.

Dale Ashby is Group Vice President, Technology & Innovation, Engineered Materials Group of Parker Hannifin Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. His responsibilities include directing technology transfer across the global footprint of Parker Seal Group locations as well as serving as the key technology representative for advanced technology research. Ashby joined Parker in June 1987, as an Applications Engineer with the O-Ring Division. Over the next 17 years, he held various positions of increasing responsibility with the Division as Manager, Applications Engineering, R&D Manager, and Engineering Manager. In 2004, he was promoted to his current position. Dale received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and an MBA from Sullivan University. Currently his research interests are in the areas of virtual product development, practical application of seal life prediction models and fluorinated elastomer material developments. Dale is active in numerous technical committees and industry organizations including SAE, NACE, AIChE, ACS, SPE, ERG and ASTM. Dale is also a member of the PDMA and AAAS. He has been a featured speaker at a number of industry conferences including the American Chemical Society, Energy Rubber Technology Symposium and the SAE World Congress. Over the years, he has also contributed numerous technical articles to a variety of research publications, trade journals and industry periodicals.

Dale E. Bredesen, M.D., UCLA and the Buck Institute Augustus Rose Professor and Director Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA Founding President and CEO, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA Dr. Bredesen received his undergraduate degree from Caltech and his medical degree from Duke. He served as Resident and Chief Resident in Neurology at UCSF, then was postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Prof. Stanley Prusiner. He was a faculty member at UCLA from 1989-1994, then was recruited by the Burnham Institute to direct the Program on Aging. In 1998 he became the Founding President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, and Adjunct Professor at UCSF; then in 2013 he returned to UCLA as the Director of the Easton Center for Alzheimer ’s Disease Research. The Bredesen Laboratory studies basic mechanisms underlying the neurodegenerative process, and the translation of this knowledge into effective therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, leading to the publication of over 200 research papers. He is the Principal Investigator for the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UCLA. He established the ADDN (Alzheimer’s Drug Development Network) with Dr. Varghese John in 2008, leading to the identification of new classes of therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease. His group has developed a new approach to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and this approach has led to the first description of reversal of symptoms in patients with MCI and early Alzheimer’s disease, with the MEND protocol.

Dan Gordon is an Executive Consultant in IBM's Global Business Services Global Healthcare Centre of Competence. Dan has led numerous assignments for clients across the world assisting healthcare organisations and policy makers in the areas of Digital Health Systems, Healthcare Innovation and Commercialization, Acquisitions, Health Services planning and Analytics

Daniel Kraft is a Stanford and Harvard trained physician-scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and innovator.

Dr. Kraft has over 20 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research and healthcare innovation. Daniel chairs the Medicine track for Singularity University and is Founding Executive Director for Exponential Medicine, a program which explores convergent, exponentially developing technologies and their potential in biomedicine and healthcare. His various TEDTalks have over 1 Million Views.

Following undergraduate degrees at Brown University and medical school at Stanford, Dr. Kraft was board certified in the Harvard combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency program at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. He went on to complete Stanford fellowships in hematology/oncology & bone marrow transplantation, and extensive research in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. He has multiple scientific publications (Nature and Science) and medical device, immunology and stem cell related patents through faculty positions with Stanford University School of Medicine and as clinical faculty for the pediatric bone marrow transplantation service at University of California San Francisco.

Dr. Kraft is the inventor of the MarrowMiner, an FDA approved device for the minimally invasive harvest of bone marrow, and founded RegenMed Systems, a company developing technologies to enable adult stem cell based regenerative therapies.

Daniel is an avid pilot and has served in the Massachusetts and California Air National Guard as an officer and flight surgeon with an F-16 fighter Squadron. He has conducted research on aerospace medicine published with NASA, and was a finalist for astronaut selection.

Dr. Kraft named as one of the 40 Smartest People in Healthcare by Beckers’ Hospital Review.

InternetMedicine.com named Dr. Kraft one of The Top Ten Internet-Smart Doctors in the World 2013.

Daniel Kraft was recognized as one of the most inspiring leaders in Life Sciences, as determined by the readers of Pharma Voice 100.

Dr. Darlene A. Lobel is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Biomedical Engineering at Cleveland Clinic. Her clinical practice focuses on deep brain stimulation in the treatment of movement disorders, and spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of chronic pain disorders. She is the leading expert in the US in performance of frameless deep brain stimulation in the intraoperative MRI suite (IMRIS). She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University and her Medical Doctorate from Medical College of Georgia. She completed clinical fellowships in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Epilepsy at UCLA and Emory, finishing training in 2007. She also completed two research fellowships, first in Grenoble, France, where she worked with Professor Alim-Louis Benabid at Clinatec from 2011-2012 on the clinical protocol and implementation of a brain computer interface system, designed to aid quadraplegic patients. She then completed a fellowship in the Neural Engineering Laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in 2013, where she worked on the design and preclinical assessment of an intraspinal microstimulation system to restore neurologic function after spinal cord injury. Dr. Lobel continues to dedicate 40% of her time at Cleveland Clinic to research in the fields of brain computer interface systems and deep brain stimulation. She is currently funded by the Neurological Institute at Cleveland Clinic to study ways to enhance cortical signals in spinal cord injury subjects in order to restore neurological function using brain computer interface systems, and is funded by Graduate Women in Science to study the impact of music on thalamic and subthalamic nucleus firing patterns in patients with movement disorders. Dr. Lobel is an internationally acclaimed speaker and holds leadership positions in both the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies. She has served as Co-Investigator and Consultant in clinical trials in the US and in France, has authored numerous publications, including peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, and serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for neurosurgical and biomedical engineering journals.

Dr. David Langer is Chief of the Department of Neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital. In 2013 Dr. Langer was recruited to Lenox Hill Hospital as Director of Neurosurgery to begin to build on a vision of not only an outstanding clinical entity in the Neurosciences but to create an entirely new environment for patients and their families. Dr. Langer is a third generation medical doctor and attended the University of Pennsylvania and its medical school. He completed his neurosurgical residency there and joined his chairman, Eugene S. Flamm MD, when he left Penn to embark on the establishment of a new neurosurgical institute in New York City in 1998. He remained in New York City until 2010 when he joined North Shore-LIJ and Dr. Raj Narayan's new academic neurosurgery department in 2010 after completing a neuroendovascular fellowship at SUNY/Buffalo. Dr. Langer has focused the majority of his clinical and academic attention to diseases of the brain vessels and is an internationally recognized expert in cerebral revascularization and cerebral aneurysms. He additionally is recognized as a thought leader and expert in the uses of consumer information technology in the medical space and has lectured on the design and implementation of these technologies. Dr. Langer has published on and spoken both nationally and internationally on vascular disorders such as aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations (AVM) of the brain and is one of the few remaining expert cerebral bypass surgeons in the country. In 2011, Dr. Langer established the Moyamoya Center of New York and embarked on the development of a project focused upon the use of social networking technology and video to enhance the patient experience and improve the medical record. This project has grown into Cirrus Health which continues to disrupt the status quo in patient communication and the current electronic medical record. Dr. Langer has received a number of awards during his training and career including being a "Top Doctor" and New York Magazine "Best Doctor." He is currently a peer reviewer for the journals Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery and AANS/Neurosurgeon and is on the medical advisory boards of Box Inc. and Cisco Systems. He is an active member of the AANS and the CNS. Dr. Langer has appeared on CNN, FOX, ABC and CBS as well as the Dr. Oz Show. He has also been frequently quoted in the New York Times and numerous other print news sources.

David Michelson, M.D., received his BA in English from Wesleyan University. Following a period of service as a teacher in the Peace Corps, he received his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed his internship and residency in Psychiatry at Yale University, where he was also a chief resident and faculty member prior to moving to the National Institute of Mental Health as a member of the clinical neuroendocrinology branch. During his tenure at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Michelson's research focused on the HPA axis, including development of investigative methodologies for assessing HPA axis regulation, and elucidating the pathophysiology and clinical sequelae of HPA axis activation in depression, as well as understanding the somatic consequences of depression-associated hypercortisolism. Dr. Michelson joined Eli Lilly and Company as a clinical research physician in 1996. In 1999 he became the medical director and later senior medical director for the atomoxetine development group (Strattera, a compound for ADHD), and led its clinical development and regulatory submissions in the US and globally. In 2003 he became the executive medical director of the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area, with responsibility for overseeing Lilly's early phase neuroscience clinical development program, including compounds with psychiatric, neurologic and pain/migraine indications. He also was a member of Eli Lilly’s corporate governance team managing the company's early phase portfolio. In 2006, Dr. Michelson joined Merck in his current position as the vice president for neuroscience and ophthalmology clinical research.

As CEO, Dr. Cosgrove presides over a $6.2 billion healthcare system comprised of the Cleveland Clinic, eight community hospitals, 16 family health and ambulatory surgery centers, Cleveland Clinic Florida, the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Cleveland Clinic Toronto, and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. His leadership has emphasized patient care and patient experience, including the re-organization of clinical services into patient-centered, organ and disease-based institutes. He launched major wellness initiatives for patients, employees and communities. Under his leadership, Cleveland Clinic has consistently been named among America’s top four hospitals (U.S.News & World Report) and is one of only two hospitals named among “America’s 99 Most Ethical Companies” (Ethisphere Institute). Dr. Cosgrove received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville and completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Brook General Hospital in London. His undergraduate work was at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. He was a surgeon in the U.S. Air Force and served in Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam, as the Chief of U.S. Air Force Casualty Staging Flight. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Republic of Vietnam Commendation Medal. Joining Cleveland Clinic in 1975, Dr. Cosgrove was named chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular surgery in 1989. Under his leadership, Cleveland Clinic’s heart program was ranked No. 1 in America for 10 years in a row (U.S.News & World Report). He has published nearly 450 journal articles, book chapters, one book and 17 training and continuing medical education films. He performed more than 22,000 operations and earned an international reputation for expertise in all areas of cardiac surgery, especially valve repair. As an innovator, Dr. Cosgrove has 30 patents filed for developing medical and clinical products used in surgical environments. In 2014, Dr. Cosgrove authored The Cleveland Clinic Way: Lessons in Excellence from One of the World’s Leading Health Care Organizations, which takes an in-depth look at today’s healthcare system. It describes the eight trends shaping the future of medicine in this country to be more efficient, more effective and more affordable than it is today. The book acknowledges the challenges facing the industry but takes a “strongly optimistic” view of what lies ahead by illustrating how the Clinic is helping to shape the future of medicine by working toward one goal: putting patients first. Dr. Cosgrove is a sought-after speaker worldwide. He has addressed the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos, Switzerland, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in Washington, D.C. He is regularly quoted and featured in national magazines and newspapers, including a cover story in Time, and major articles in Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, “The Charlie Rose Show” on PBS, and other national media outlets. The recipient of Cleveland Clinic’s Master Clinician Award, Innovator of the Year Award and Lerner Humanitarian Award, Dr. Cosgrove is also a member of the Cleveland Medical Hall of Fame and Cleveland Business Hall of Fame. In 2007 he was named Cleveland Business Executive of the Year by the Sales and Marketing Executives of Cleveland, and Castle Connolly’s National Physician of the Year. He also received the Woodrow Wilson Center Award for Public Service as well as Harvard Business School’s Award from HBS Alumni, Cleveland, and the Humanitarian Award of the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio. Dr. Cosgrove topped Inside Business’s “Power 100” listing for Northeast Ohio, and is highly ranked among Modern Healthcare’s “100 most powerful people in healthcare” and “most powerful physician executives.” And in 2013 he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies.

Dr. Malone is the Chairman of Psychology and Psychiatry at Cleveland Clinic. He also serves as President of Lutheran Hospital. Since 1999, Dr. Malone has been involved with research into the use of deep brain stimulation in psychiatric disorders. This research has resulted in numerous publications on this topic. Recently, he served as the National PI for the Reclaim Study investigating the use of DBS in Treatment Resistant Depression.

Dwayne Bray joined ESPN in October 2006. He is a senior coordinating producer who oversees investigative-and-enterprise reporting for the network’s television operation. His team’s work in the area of brain injuries has been honored with some of journalism’s top awards, including a 2014 Peabody from the University of Georgia. Reporters from his team authored League of Denial, the 2013 best-selling book that examined how the National Football League used its power and resources to question independent scientists and elevate its own flawed brain-injury research. Prior to joining ESPN, Bray had a nearly two-decade print career with the Dallas Morning News, the Dayton Daily News, the Los Angeles Times and the Medina (Ohio) Gazette. A native of East Cleveland, Ohio, Bray is a graduate of the Ohio State University (master’s degree in journalism) and Cleveland State University (bachelor’s degree in communication). At ESPN, Bray’s investigative unit also has been awarded the Alfred. I duPont Award from Columbia University for coverage of youth-football safety issues. Bray is the author of The Gift: Learning to Appreciate the Value of Life, a story about the struggles of growing up the son of a teen-aged mother and his eventual donation of a kidney to a cousin.

Dr. Edward Benzel is an internationally recognized thought leader in spine surgery and biomechanics. Appointed in 2007, he is Chairman of Neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (1999; CCLCM). His clinical interests include cervical spondylosis, syringomyelia, complex spine instrumentation, and spine tumors. In addition to his significant contributions providing vigorous and continual peer-review to the body of neurological surgery and spine care literature, he has authored 10 textbooks in the field of spine care, co-authored and edited several texts and over 370 chapters. Dr. Benzel has published > 250 refereed manuscripts. Besides publishing research, Dr. Benzel is frequently invited as a visiting professor, speaker, and faculty instructor at hospitals, universities, and major national and international medical meetings. His innovations in Neurosurgery Resident Education have won accolades and numerous awards.

Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 to shift America’s health care paradigm from one focused on reactive care to one in which early detection and prevention are a reality. By improving individuals’ access to lab tests, Theranos makes actionable health information available to people at the time it matters, empowering them with the information they need to own their health.

Theranos is revolutionizing diagnostic testing through technological innovations that have made it possible to quickly process a full range of laboratory tests at prices that are 50% to 80% below Medicare reimbursement rates. Theranos is making the diagnostic testing industry more transparent by publishing all its prices, charging everyone the same prices, and voluntarily submitting all of its tests to the FDA for review.

Earlier this year, Ms. Holmes worked with leaders in Arizona to pass the first law that expressly recognizes individuals’ right to directly access laboratory tests without first obtaining an order, which often requires justifying a health concern or relying on insurance eligibility.

Elizabeth serves as a U.S. Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, and she is a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2015 TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Eric Brown is a research scientist and Director in the Watson Group at IBM. Eric was a technical lead on the research team that created Watson, the question answering system famous for beating Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on the television quiz show Jeopardy!. Eric now directs that team with a focus on advancing core cognitive technologies in support of applications in the healthcare domain. This work includes research and development in NLP and AI technologies, structured and unstructured data analysis and summarization, complex problem scenario analysis and decision support, and collaborative learning technologies. The team is especially interested in providing sophisticated access, understanding, and exploitation of information in Electronic Medical Records and leveraging that information to support medical providers in care delivery. Eric earned his B.S. at the University of Vermont and M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, all in Computer Science. Eric has published numerous conference and journal papers, and holds several patents in the areas of text analysis and question answering.

Erik Rasmussen works in the Federal Relations Department of the American Hospital Association as Vice President of the Advocacy & Public Policy Group. Erik is responsible for representing AHA’s interests before the U.S. Congress. His primary goals are to promote hospitals’ interests with primary congressional committees with greatest importance to hospitals and will play a leadership role in developing AHA’s strategies and articulating AHA’ s policies on assigned congressional committees. Prior to his time at AHA, Erik was Professional Staff at the Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health. He was formerly the Chief of Staff to Representative Kenny Hulshof (R-MO9), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and subcommittees on Health and Trade. The Ways and Means Committee has primary jurisdiction over Medicare, as well as all tax and trade issues in the House. Before joining Rep. Hulshof, Erik was the Health Policy Advisor to Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ5), and prior to that Erik was a lobbyist with Jefferson Government Relations where he handled mostly health care and business clients, including the Texas Medical Society, Fortis Health (now Assurant), Aetna, and Holiday Inn. Erik began his career in Washington on the staff of now retired Representative John Edward Porter (R-IL10), who chaired the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee of Appropriations. Erik is an alum of Brigham Young University, where he majored in Political Science, with a minor in Journalism. Erik sits on the board of the Charles and Annaley Redd Charitable Foundation. Erik is also active as a Boy Scout leader, having served as a Scoutmaster, Venture Crew leader, and currently serves as the Troop 821 Assistant Scoutmaster. Erik is a father of four (Addison, Becky, Kate and Jack; wife Ashlie) and firmly believes next year will be the year the Cubs win the World Series.

Frank A. Papay, MD, an accomplished surgeon, has been recognized as one of the nation’s Best Doctors specializing in plastic and reconstructive by Castle Connolly. He is the current chairman of the Cleveland Clinic’s Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute and associate professor of surgery, Lerner School of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He is head of the section of craniofacial surgery, director of the craniofacial surgical fellowship, leads the multidisciplinary craniofacial cleft palate surgical center of the Cleveland Clinic, and is the craniofacial surgeon member of America’s first face transplant surgical team. His clinical research interests include the design of medical devices, biomaterials in craniofacial reconstruction, nasal valve function in rhinoplasty, facial aesthetic plastic surgery, pediatric craniofacial anomalies, surgical techniques in face transplantation and neural modulation of skull base ganglia for cluster and migraine headaches. Dr. Papay has been awarded WebMD’s 2014 Health Hero for his work with migraine headache technology. Dr. Papay has served as President of the Ohio Valley Society of Plastic Surgeons, Chair of the American Society of Plastic Surgery’s Ethics Committee, President of the Plastic Surgery Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Vice President (education) of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons. He also serves on executive committees at the Cleveland Clinic in his role as Institute Chair. First trained as a biomedical engineer, Dr. Papay subsequently became double boarded in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in addition to Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery. He has published over 100 scientific papers, abstracts and book chapters and is the primary inventor of eight medical device patents and ten patent applications for a variety of medical devices and craniofacial surgical procedures. He serves as a senior board examiner for the American Board of Plastic Surgery, finalist judge for the collegiate inventors’ competition from the National Inventors Hall of Fame and invited section reviewer and/or editorial board of several plastics surgery scientific journals. Dr. Papay is also a member of Cleveland Clinic’s Innovations Commercialization Board, board of directors of Jumpstart Inc. and sits on a number of medical advisory boards. He is also co-founder of Cleveland Cares Medical Missions and has participated in multiple overseas volunteer surgical missions for craniofacial and cleft palate reconstructions. Dr. Papay is currently completing his Doctor of Management degree at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, with his thesis involving the entrepreneurial process of risk transference in the due diligence and decision-making of financing new biotech ventures.

Frederick Frost is a board-certified specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation and spinal cord injury medicine. He holds a degree in English from the University of Illinois, and a medical degree from Northwestern University. After postgraduate training at Cook County Hospital and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, he was named the Julius N. Frankel Fellow in Spinal Cord Neurotrauma at the Midwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury System at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Leading the development of the Northeast Ohio Regional Spinal System at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, he authored the system’s first successful Model Systems grant in 1995 and served as its principal investigator and project director for the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Dr. Frost has published extensively in the field of spinal cord injury, and authored the chapter on spinal cord injury medicine in Braddom's "Textbook of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation," the leading reference worldwide in the field of PM&R. He has written over 90 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts and book chapters in the field of rehabilitation. He also serves as Editor of Lin's "Textbook of Spinal Cord Medicine" and Associate Editor for the journal PM&R. He is a member of the governing board of the Association of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals, and is currently president of the American Paraplegia Society. Grants that he has authored have raised more than $2 million for rehabilitation research. An Associate Professor of Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Dr. Frost has been honored with the Sidney Licht Lectureship at Ohio State University, the Prince Visiting Professorship at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and the Charles Gibson Visiting Professorship at the University of Rochester. Since joining Cleveland Clinic he has held several department, institute and enterprise leadership roles in rehabilitation, home care, hospice and post-acute clinical domains.

Gene H. Barnett, MD, is Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center; Director of the Cleveland Clinic Health System Gamma Knife Center; and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery. He has served on the Board of Governors of Cleveland Clinic for a five-year term and was President of the Staff. He has authored more than 210 articles published in leading medical journals and has a particular interest in the areas of neuro-oncology, computer-assisted surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery. In the late 1980s, Dr. Barnett created the Center for Computer-Assisted Neurosurgery at Cleveland Clinic, which established Cleveland Clinic's neurosurgery program as an innovator in following: Advanced stereotaxis, or the identification of discreet areas of the brain that control specific functions Computer applications resulting in the creation of a powerful surgical navigation system called frameless stereotaxy. He holds several patents in these areas and continues work on the development of technology in neurosurgery including laser lesioning systems for brain tumors.. Dr. Barnett is a past-president of the Ohio State Neurosurgical Society, and the Northeast Ohio Neurosurgical Society. He was a state representative for the Joint Council of State Neurosurgical Societies, and he has served as Chairman of its Northwest Quadrant. He also has served on the Executive Committee of the Section on Tumors and has been on the Board of Directors of the Joint Section of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Board of Directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. In addition, he has served on a number of editorial boards and is a reviewer for several neurosurgery journals. He received his degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, completed his residency at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Neurosurgery and his fellowship in Neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he was a clinical and research fellow at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his Masters of Business degree at the Weatherhead School of Management of Case Western Reserve University

Geno Germano is Group President of Pfizer’s Global Innovative Pharma Business, the company’s operating unit focused on development, registration and commercialization of novel, value creating medicines that significantly improve patients’ lives. In this role, Germano leads a growing global business with market-leading medicines and a robust pipeline in several therapeutic areas including inflammation, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, neuroscience and pain and rare diseases. Additionally, Germano is Co-Chair of the Portfolio Strategy and Investment Committee which focuses on maximizing the return on research and development investment across the Pfizer Inc. portfolio. Germano is a member of Pfizer’s Executive Leadership Team.

Additionally, Germano manages Pfizer’s Global Health and Value function created to demonstrate the value of innovation and support access to Pfizer medicines. Global Health and Value includes experts from market access, health economics, outcomes research and real world data focused on ways to improve patient outcomes and reduce total healthcare costs.

Previously, Germano served as President and General Manager of Pfizer’s Specialty Care and Oncology business units.

Joining Pfizer from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Germano served as President of the U.S. and Pharmaceutical business units and was responsible for the U.S. Pharmaceuticals, Biologics and Vaccines businesses. In addition, he led the global strategy for the Pharmaceutical and Institutional business units.

With more than 25 years of international experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Germano has held many positions including Executive Vice President and General Manager for Wyeth Global Vaccines; Managing Director, Wyeth Australia and New Zealand and Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Pharmaceutical business unit. He led numerous product launches in primary and specialty care therapeutic areas. Germano also held various commercial development and strategy positions at Johnson & Johnson companies. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Germano was a pharmacist, where he first developed his zeal for science that makes a difference for patients.

Germano is a member of the G50, an executive group that seeks to promote openness among business leaders and to create economic and social progress in the region. Also, he serves as a member of the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO); on the Advisory Board of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association and as a Trustee of the Albany College of Pharmacy where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy.

George Mateyo joined Cleveland Clinic as the Senior Director of Investments in January, 2010. In his role, Mr. Mateyo is responsible for the management and oversight of Cleveland Clinic’s and participant-directed investment assets which includes endowment, defined benefit, defined contribution, insurance, and short-term/working capital investments which in the aggregate exceeds $12 billion.

Prior Experience

Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic, Mr. Mateyo’s career includes over 15 years of experience in investment management and investment consulting where he acquired firsthand knowledge and insights into the capital markets and the stewardship of investment portfolios for institutional and high net worth investors.

Education and Professional Affiliations

Mr. Mateyo received his BA (honors) from Wittenberg University, and his MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He also completed additional studies at the London School of Economics.

He is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Cleveland, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Saint Luke’s Foundation of Cleveland where he also chairs the Investment Committee. Mr. Mateyo, his wife and two sons live in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen is the Chairman and CEO of Athersys, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHX), a biopharmaceutical company based in Cleveland, Ohio that was established in 1995. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Athersys since August, 2000, and as CEO since the company was formed. Since the company was founded, he has overseen the growth and development of the primary business operations at the company, and the transition from a venture backed start-up to a NASDAQ listed public company. Dr. Van Bokkelen received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford University School of Medicine, and earned degrees in both Economics and Molecular Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. In addition to his duties at Athersys, Dr. Van Bokkelen serves as the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the National Center for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM), a multi-institutional collaboration originally established as the Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine (CSCRM) in 2003 by the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, the Ohio State University, and Athersys, Inc. From 2010 – 2012 he served as Chairman of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization whose mission is to educate key policy makers and others about the potential of regenerative medicine. He also serves as a member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Board, and has served on the board of other organizations as well. He has received numerous awards, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the Blue Cross - SBN Visionary in Business Award.

Harold L. Paz, M.D., M.S., is executive vice president and chief medical officer for Aetna. He leads clinical strategy and policy at the intersection of all of Aetna’s domestic and global businesses. He is responsible for driving clinical innovation to improve patient experience, quality and cost in all areas of the health care delivery system. Before joining Aetna in 2014, Dr. Paz served as chief executive officer of Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Health System, senior vice president for Health Affairs for Penn State University, dean of its College of Medicine and professor of medicine and public health sciences for eight years. Prior to his appointment to Penn State, he spent 11 years as dean of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and chief executive officer of Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Group, the largest multispecialty group practice in New Jersey where he was professor of medicine. His vision for health care transformation at Penn State led to the formation of an integrated healthcare system of four hospitals, 64 ambulatory care practices and 18 affiliated hospitals focused on population health across central Pennsylvania. Dr. Paz has focused his research and teaching on clinical outcomes, health system organization, and health care effectiveness. A pioneer in the field of quality management, Dr. Paz was among the first to study clinical outcomes in the intensive care unit. From this early work, he recognized the need to formally train physicians in quality, and in 1993 he started the first fellowship of its kind in quality management. Currently, he is professor adjunct of internal medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and remains clinically active in pulmonary medicine volunteering at the West Haven Veteran’s Administration Hospital. A fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians, Dr. Paz is currently on the board of United Surgical Partners International, and the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts. Dr. Paz is past chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Academic Health Centers and a former member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the University Health System Consortium board of directors. He previously was chair of the AAMC Council of Deans administrative board and has served on the AAMC executive council in addition to corporate and scientific advisory boards in the biotechnology field. He has authored more than 85 publications,

Leader Holly L. Thacker, MD, FACP, CCD, NCMP is nationally known for her leadership in Women’s Health, including areas such as menopause, hormone therapy regimens, osteoporosis, breast cancer risk assessment, sexual dysfunction and gender specific medicine. She is the founder of one of the first Women’s Health Fellowships in the United States, located at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Thacker is Professor and Director of the Center for Specialized Women’s Health at the Cleveland Clinic in the OB-GYN and Women’s Health Institute, with special interests in menopause and related medical problems, osteoporosis, hormone therapy, breast cancer risk assessment, shared medical appointments, female sexual dysfunction, urinary leakage, and interdisciplinary women’s health. She authored a book: “Women’s Health: Your Body, Your Hormones, Your Choices, a Cleveland Clinic Guide” and in 2009 published her second book “Cleveland Clinic Guide to Menopause”. She is a past Chair of the Physician Education Committee for the North American Menopause Society. She is the Executive Director of national Speaking of Women’s Health www.speakingofwomenshealth.com a non-profit dedicated to educating women to “Be Strong, Be Healthy, and Be in Charge.” Dr. Thacker graduated from the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine at the top of her class and is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Society. Dr. Thacker continued with an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Cleveland Clinic followed by a self-designed postgraduate training in interdisciplinary women’s health with a concentration in gynecology, menopause, hormone therapy, CV disease in women, and metabolic bone disease. Dr. Thacker is a NAMS certified Menopause specialist, a Certified Clinical Densitometrist, and an InTone specialist. She is an elected state Councilor on the Board of Directors of the Ohio State Medical Association 2013-2016. She is also an elected public official, School Board member, Cuyahoga Heights Local Schools2010-2017. Educator/Innovator Dr. Thacker has many years of experience serving as an educator in her expertise. She a Professor for the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at CWRU. She continues to be recognized for her excellence and has won many health awards. In 2009, Dr. Thacker received the Lila A. Wallis Women’s Health Award for the American Medical Women’s Association and the Journal of Women’s Health for her lifetime career achievements in interdisciplinary women’s health and in 2010 was one of the 10 national winners of the Healthnetwork Foundation Service Excellence Award. This prestigious award annually to the 10 top physicians who have consistently gone “above and beyond”, demonstrating a long-term commitment to premium-level patient care and an interest in medical research. Healthnetwork Foundation is a non-profit that networks presidents and CEOs into the top hospitals in the US. She was named a 2011 Crain’s “Healthcare Hero” and in 2012 has won the Cuyahoga Valley Chamber of Commerce award for “Excellence in Customer Service” and in 2012 was featured as an OSMA member in Ohio Medicine. She has published numerous manuscripts, book chapters, and commentaries. She has initiated many innovative, interdisciplinary endeavors including scholarly and clinical activities with a focus on Patient Experience, Shared Medical appointments, hormone therapy and pelvic stimulating devices. Expert Dr Thacker has published numerous book chapters, original peer reviewed manuscripts and medical commentaries on women’s health, menopause and postmenopausal osteoporosis. Dr. Thacker’s extensive knowledge of Women’s Health has given rise to many appearances on national Television and print and web media. She is a guest speaker on Women’s Health topics, traveling throughout the state as well as nationally to share her insights.

Imad M Najm Director, Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center Director of Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center, Dr. Najm has more than 25 years of experience in clinical and basic research in Epilepsy Medicine and its mechanisms. Currently, he oversees one of the largest centers in the world for innovative medical and surgical treatment of epilepsy. Dr. Najm and his team pioneered the establishment of an epilepsy biorepository from brain tissue resected from patients with medically intractable (pharmacoresistant) epilepsy since 1997. This tissue bank now stores more than 1,700 pathologically, and clinically well-characterized brain samples with detailed clinical, cognitive, and psychiatric outcome data. Dr. Najm is a Clinician with deep commitment to patient care and an Academician/innovator with a keen interest in further understanding the disease and introducing innovative approaches for the treatment of epilepsy. He is also an educator of physicians, medical students and consumers. Dr. Najm developed the Epilepsy Tissue Bank in 1997.Over the last 10 years, Dr. Najm has been voted as one of the Best Doctors in Cleveland and the United States. The Epilepsy Tissue Bank and Biorepository will be used for the generation of “big data” that will help uncover the basic mechanisms of epilepsy and in particular the molecular underpinnings of drug resistant epilepsies and lead to the identification of blood and imaging biomarkers for this disabling disease. Dr. Najm earned his medical and undergraduate degrees at Saint Joseph University in Beirut Lebanon, pursued post-doctoral clinical and research training in Paris, France, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and the Cleveland Clinic. He helped developed the educational curriculum at The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western University and served as a co-director of Neurosciences (2005-2011), and Basic Sciences (2008-2011). He has practiced Epilepsy at Cleveland Clinic since 1997. Dr. Najm enjoys reading, cycling, painting, and traveling with his three children.

Jay L. Alberts, Ph.D., is the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Concussion Center and holder of the “Edward F. and Barbara A. Bell Family Endowed Chair.” Dr. Alberts is an Associate Staff member within the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of Clinical Research within the Center for Neurological Restoration. He also is a Principal Investigator within the Functional Electrical Stimulation Center of Excellence at the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center. He holds an appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Alberts was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Physiology at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Alberts’ research in concussion is focused on understanding the relationship between the biomechanics of the impact force, and the behavioral and physiological consequences of these impacts. He has developed a suite of mobile App modules for the collection of objective and quantitative data to determine the athlete-specific effects of concussion on cognitive and motor functioning. Data from these modules is integrated into the Cleveland Clinic Concussion CarePath across the CCHS enterprise, to ensure consistency of evaluation and care of patients with concussion or MTBI. Dr. Alberts is currently the PI on three NIH R01 clinical studies, and a VA Merit Award, aimed at determining the effects of unilateral and bilateral deep brain stimulation on PD symptoms, and the effectiveness of assisted, compared to voluntary exercise, in Parkinson’s disease patients. He has more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has been continuously funded by NIH since 1998. He was presented with an Alumni Achievement Award from Iowa State University in 2011 for his translational research related to Parkinson’s disease.

JC Simbana leads the Digital Health & early stage Healthcare practice for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). SVB provides banking and lending services to early-stage startups, organizes events to connect startups and VCs, and assists startups with their fundraising process. With over fifteen years of experience in venture banking and lending, Mr. Simbana has worked with entrepreneurs in the biotech, medical device, diagnostics, tools, and digital health sectors and has helped several startups secure angel and VC financing. Mr. Simbana is on the board of directors of Life Science Angels, and is actively involved with HealthXL, Springboard, Illumina’s Accelerator, QB3, Thiel Foundation's 20 Under 20 Fellowship, and Breakout Labs as a mentor, speaker, judge and connector.

As the CEO and Co-Founder of ABPathfinder, Jeff's goal is to bring transformative healthcare technology to help individuals with autism lead more social lives. ABPathfinder's first software product is used internationally as a direct tool in the autism therapy process, providing Evidence-Based Practice measures to therapy centers internationally (including Cleveland Clinic), demonstrating up to a 20% improvement in outcomes. Jeff has also been recognized as a 2011 alum of PIPELINE, by Startup Health as Healthcare Transformer, and serves as Vice President of Autism Society – the Heartland.

Job Title: Chief Medical Officer, GE HealthCare How long in current role: 5 years Numbers of years in healthcare: 25+ years Previous roles: Global Medical Director of Medical Safety, Boston Scientific Chief Medical Officer MA-1, NDMS (still active) Nationally Syndicated Newspaper Columnist, “What’s up doc?” (still active) Attending Physician, Emergency Rooms for 20+ Years (still intermittently active) Previous Faculty Appointments @ Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Tufts, U Mass, & Harvard Education: MD, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine PhD Theoretical Physics, Yale University MS Electrical Engineering, George Washington University BS Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute BS Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Interests: Paragliding, running, swimming, theoretical analysis of the fundamentals of time - Extensive clinical experience with a history of over 25 years as a practicing physician; has had Board Certifications in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine and Disaster Medicine. - Extensive academic experience with previous faculty appointments at Harvard, University of Massachusetts, Tufts, Cornell, Dartmouth, Yale and others. Also served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Clinical Medicine, as well as a reviewer for several journals. Served as a member of the U. Mass. IRB for several years. - Serves on the Board of Directors for the American Diabetes Association in NYC, the Board of Directors for Operation DragonFire for the Centers for Disease Control, the Board of Directors for the Emergency Preparedness Institute and the Board of Trustees for the LXA Scholarship Foundation. - Extensive clinical trial experience having been awarded a $319k NIH grant, as well as having been PI of many studies. Has published well over 100 articles, written several book chapters and delivered 100’s of invited lectures. - Extensive regulatory experience, including being RAC by RAPS and authoring and lecturing on multiple regulatory topics relating to the medical device industry. - Extensive industry experience as the Global Director of Medical Safety for Boston Scientific and presently the Chief Medical Officer Medical Solutions for General Electric HealthCare. - Currently an intermittent federal employee as the Chief Medical Officer for the Massachuesstes-1 Disaster Medical Assist Team under the National Disaster Medical System of Health and Human Services.

Jeff joined SAGE as CEO in 2013 and has more than 20 years of experience on both the scientific and business sides of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, particularly in the CNS field. Before joining the SAGE team, Jeff served as President of the Regenerative Medicine Division of Shire plc and previously as Senior Vice President of Research and Development, Pharmaceuticals at Shire. Prior to Shire, he served as the Executive Vice President of ISIS Pharmaceuticals, as the Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Forest Laboratories, Inc. and in senior-level positions at Upjohn Laboratories. Jeff founded AVAX Technologies, where he served as CEO and President, and SCEPTOR Industries, where he served as Chairman, President and Chief Technology Officer. Earlier in his career, he served as Independent Director at Cara Therapeutics, Inc. and Director of AVAX Technologies. He has published more than 70 scientific papers and chapters, authored more than 100 books, scientific articles and abstracts, and has received numerous awards. Jeff received his B.A. from Amherst College and M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed a residency in psychiatry at Harvard and then served as Chief Resident in psychopharmacology at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Jeff Chapa, MD, is Head of the Section of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Cleveland Clinic’s Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health Institute. Dr. Chapa is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology, maternal-fetal medicine, and medical genetics. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biology and History at Washington University in St. Louis and earned his medical degree from [St. Louis University School of Medicine. His post-graduate training includes an obstetrics and gynecology residency at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland followed by a three-year maternal-fetal medicine fellowship at University of Chicago. He also completed a two-year medical genetics fellowship at University of Chicago and Children’s Memorial Hospital. His specialty interests include preconceptional counseling, comprehensive management of high-risk pregnancy, obstetrical ultrasound and prenatal diagnosis, and prenatal genetic counseling.

Dr. Cohen is Professor of Medicine (Neurology) in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He received a BA from Connecticut College in 1976 and MD from the University of Chicago School of Medicine in 1980. He completed a Neurology Residency in 1984 then a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship in Neuroimmunology in 1987, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cohen has worked at the Mellen MS Center at the Cleveland Clinic since 1994 and became Director in 2014. He also is Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program, the Clinical Neuroimmunology Fellowship, and the MS Academic Coordinating Center. Dr. Cohen has a large clinical practice devoted primarily to the care of patients with MS and related disorders. He has over 180 publications concerning immunologic, imaging, and clinical aspects of MS. He has been involved in various capacities in a large number of clinical trials of potential therapies for MS.

Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD, ScD, is Director, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Nevada and Cleveland, Ohio. He is the Camille and Larry Ruvo Chair of the Neurological Institute of Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Medicine (Neurology), Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Cummings is Principal Investigator/Director of the NIH/NIGMS-funded Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience. Dr. Cummings is a world-renowned Alzheimer’s researcher and leader of clinical trials. He has been recognized for his research and leadership contributions in the field of Alzheimer’s disease through the Henderson Award of the American Geriatrics Society (2006), the Research Award of the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Research Foundation (2008), and the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Award of the national Alzheimer’s Association (2008). In 2010, he was honored by the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry with their Distinguished Scientist Award. In 2011, he was awarded a Doctor of Science by his Alma mater, University of Wyoming. He was featured in the Gentleman’s Quarterly (June 2009) as a “Rockstar of Science.” Dr. Cummings is interested in clinical trials, developing new therapies for brain diseases, and the interface of neuroscience and society. Dr. Cummings completed Neurology residency and a Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. US training was followed by a Research Fellowship in Neuropathology and Neuropsychiatry at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, England. Dr. Cummings was formerly Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA, director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at UCLA, and director of the Deane F. Johnson Center for Neurotherapeutics at UCLA. He is past president of the Behavioral Neurology Society and of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. Dr. Cummings has authored or edited 39 books and published over 650 peer-reviewed papers

Jennifer Palinchik is President of JALEX Medical providing strategic vision and leadership to the company over the past 4 years. She has over 12 years of experience in the medical device field, specializing in design and development from concept to production and regulatory affairs activities including driving achievement of medical device clearances. She is an active member in regional organizations that promote biomedical and healthcare in Northeast Ohio and has been featured in several local and national publications. Earlier in her career, she performed artificial pancreas and kidney stem cell research for animal studies and clinical trials. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toledo.

James M. Free James Free serves as the director at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. In this position, which he assumed on January 4, 2013, he is responsible for planning, organizing and directing the activities required in accomplishing the missions assigned to the center. Glenn is engaged in research, technology and systems development programs in space propulsion, space power, space communications, aeronautical propulsion, microgravity sciences and materials. Prior to accepting the director's position, Free served as Glenn's deputy director since November 2010. Free has served in a number of other leadership positions including director of Space Flight Systems at Glenn where he was responsible for overseeing the management of Glenn's significant activities in the agency's Constellation, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Space Communications, Human Research and Science Programs. He held that position from September 2009 to November 2012. He was also chief of Glenn's Orion Projects Office from February to September 2009, responsible for all Orion-related work at the center. From 2008 through 2009, Free served as the Orion Test and Verification Manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. In this role, he was responsible for planning and executing all verification activities supporting development of NASA's next generation human space vehicle. Free also served as the Orion Service Module Manager overseeing the team designing the service module, which propels the Orion Crew Module. Free, a native of Northeast Ohio, began his NASA career in 1990 at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. as a propulsion engineer and later as a systems engineer on several spacecraft. At Glenn, his first assignment in 1999 was as the International Space Station liaison for the Fluids and Combustion Facility. He also led the development of electric actuation technologies for NASA's Next Generation Launch Technology Project, and was the launch vehicle manager and autonomous rendezvous and docking manager for the Prometheus spacecraft. Free is the recipient of a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, NASA Significant Achievement Medal and numerous other awards. Free earned his bachelor's degree in aeronautics from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and his master's degree in space systems engineering from Delft University in the Netherlands.

Dr. Leverenz is the Director of the Cleveland Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the Joseph Hahn MD Endowed Chair of the Neurological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. His primary clinical and research interests are the aging-associated neurological disorders, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia with Lewy bodies. He is an investigator in the Michael J Fox Foundation sponsored Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI) study and is the pathology core leader for PPMI program. He also chairs the scientific advisory council for the Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) and is on the professional advisory board for the Cleveland Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

JAMES B. YOUNG, M.D. Professor of Medicine and Executive Dean, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University George and Linda Kaufman Chair, Kaufman Center for Heart Failure Physician Director, Philanthropy Institute Chairman, Endocrinology and Metabolism Institute Interim Chairman, Medicine Institute Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio Dr. Young is Professor of Medicine and Executive Dean of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and Chairman of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Institute. He is also a Physician Director of the Philanthropy Institute and co-founder of the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure. He holds the George and Linda Kaufman Chair. He was recently appointed Interim Chairman of the Medicine Institute. As Study Chairman over the past decade of the NIH, FDA, and CMS Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS), Dr. Young maintains an active professional role in the fields of heart failure, heart transplant, and MCSD development. He has a joint appointment to the Clinic&rsquo;s Multi-organ Transplant Center and the Heart and Vascular Institute. Dr. Young is certified as Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine, as well as the subspecialties of Cardiovascular Disease and Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology. He holds medical licensure from the states of California, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas. Dr. Young spent his early years in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended the University of Kansas, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors in Biology and was a resident of Stephenson Scholarship Hall. He matriculated to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where he was awarded his Medical Doctor degree with honors in 1974 and elected to Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society. Dr. Young remained in Houston at the Baylor Affiliated Hospitals to complete his clinical training, joined the faculty, and became a tenured Professor of Medicine in 1992. He was the Clinical Coordinator and Scientific Director of Dr. Michael E. DeBakey&rsquo;s Multi-organ Transplant Center at The Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. He relocated to the Cleveland Clinic in 1995 when he became Head of the Section of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Medicine in the Department of Cardiovascular Disease, where he subsequently was the Vice-Chairman. In 1998, Dr. Young and his surgical colleague, Dr. Patrick McCarthy, created the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure. He assumed the position of the Cleveland Clinic Division of Medicine Chairman in 2003. He was an architect of the Cleveland Clinic &ldquo;Institute&rdquo; reorganization in 2008. Dr. Young&rsquo;s research activities began during his residency and fellowship when he was a Lipid Research Clinic physician. He subsequently focused his efforts on heart failure, mechanical circulatory support, and cardiac transplant therapeutics, including early experiences with dopamine receptor agonists, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin receptor blockers, many new immunosuppressants, and a variety of parenteral inotropes and vasodilators. He has collaborated extensively with his basic science research associates focusing on &lsquo;translational&rsquo; research with respect to the molecular biology of cardiac remodeling, allograft arteriopathy, and cardiac allograft rejection. Dr. Young served as the United States, or global, Principal or Co-Principal Investigator for the HOPE, RESOLVED, SPICE, VMAC, MIRACLE-ICD, RED-HF, ACCLAIM, ONTARGET, TRENSCEND, and CHARM multi-center clinical trials. He has participated in over 150 clinical trials as an investigator and has published over 650 manuscripts and several textbooks. Professionally, Dr. Young is most proud of his contributions to the development and administration of donor organ procurement programs, his efforts to secure recognition for the subspecialty of &ldquo;Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Medicine&rdquo;, his collaborations with basic and clinical scientists, his contributions to a unique medical school curriculum, and the clinical and academic programs he helped develop in Houston and Cleveland.<br />

Dr. Joan Fallon, Founder and CEO of Curemark, is considered a visionary scientist who has dedicated her life’s work to championing the health and wellbeing of children worldwide. She is widely recognized for her vision, passion, and innovation in defining a successful entrepreneurial venture. Curemark is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies to treat serious diseases for which there are limited treatment options. The company’s pipeline includes a phase III clinical-stage research program for Autism & ADHD, as well as three preclinical programs focused on Parkinson’s Disease, schizophrenia, and addiction. In 2013, Curemark commenced the filing of a New Drug Application for the first novel drug for autism under the FDA Fast Track Program. Fast Track status is a designation given only to investigational new drugs that are intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions, and that have demonstrated the potential to address, unmet medical needs. Joan holds 46 patents worldwide, has written numerous scholarly articles, and lectured extensively across the globe on pediatric developmental problems including autism and ADHD. A former Assistant professor at Yeshiva University in the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics she presently serves on the Council of National Advisors for Springboard Enterprises an internationally known venture catalyst, that supports women–led growth companies. She served on the Board of Advisors for the ADA for the building of the new Yankee Stadium. She was recently appointed Senior Advisor to the Henry Crown Fellows at The Aspen Institute, as well as a Distinguished Fellow at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College/Columbia University. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Franklin & Marshall College. She has a BA degree from Franklin and Marshall College, a DC degree from Palmer University, and has completed her course work for the MSc in clinical investigation from Harvard University’s joint program with Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Fallon resides in Bronxville, NY.

Joe Cunningham is a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Santé Ventures, a science and healthcare venture capital company based in Austin, Texas. Prior to this Joe was a healthcare Venture Partner with Austin Ventures and was previously the Vice Chair of the Ascension Health Ventures investment committee. He is also the former Chief Medical Officer of the Providence Health System and Executive Director of the 300-physician Providence Health Alliance, both of which belong to the Ascension Health system. He has extensive management experience and is recognized nationally for his expertise in healthcare delivery systems, physician associations and compensation models. Joe serves on Advisory Boards for both United Healthcare and for Health Services Corporation (BC/BS). He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Quality Assurance and Peer Review. Dr. Cunningham received his BS and MD degrees from Texas A&M University and his MBA from Baylor University.

John Nottingham is the co-founder and Co-President of Nottingham Spirk, a leading business innovation firm with nearly 1,000 commercialized patents. The Nottingham Spirk "Vertical Innovation" process has helped client / partner companies earn over $50 billion in combined sales.

The NS innovation team has co-created such award winning innovations as SpinBrush, the largest selling powered toothbrush line; CardioInsight EC Vue, the first non-invasive electrocardiographic mapping system (a technology originally created at Case Western Reserve University and acquired by Medtronic); ViewRay, the first MRI guided radiation therapy device; and HeathSpot, the world’s first retail telemedicine / medical device system.

John serves on the Cleveland Clinic Board of Trustees, CWRU Technology Commercialization Visiting Committee, CWRU Think[box] Advisory Board, boards of Global Center for Health Innovation, Great Lakes Biomimicry, Cleveland Institute of Art and University Circle Inc., as well as several private equity company boards of directors.

As the lead patent holder on hundreds of US and international patents, John is in the top tier of individual inventors in the US. John is an inductee of the Inside Business Hall of Fame.

John has presented numerous times on the subject of breakthrough innovation, and has shared speaker platforms with Neil Armstrong, Colin Powell and Clayton Christensen, author of "The Innovator's Dilemma." He has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, NBC Nightly News, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Japan Forbes, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, New York Times, Wired and Fast Company.

Dr. John M. Sankovic serves as the Director of the Office of Technology Incubation and Innovation at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Sankovic was appointed to the position and to the Senior Executive Service in September 2014. In his current role he oversees discretionary investments in technology, technology transfer and licensing, promoting and protecting the center’s intellectual property portfolio and identifying infusion opportunities. Dr. Sankovic also serves as the Center Chief Technologist. He joined NASA in June of 1987 as a co-op engineering student working on turbine engine compressors and has had a distinguished NASA career serving in various technical, supervisory and mid-level program/project management positions of increasing responsibility across a variety of Glenn competencies. Prior to his current position Dr. Sankovic served as the Chief of the Space Operations Project Office managing work assigned to Glenn in the areas of electric power, space communications, human health and physical sciences. Dr. Sankovic earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from The University of Akron, his Master of Business Administration from Cleveland State University, and his master’s and doctorate in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He is a certified Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute. Dr. Sankovic is a registered professional engineer in the State of Ohio with distinction by the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers for highest achievement on both licensure examinations. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, five agency group achievement awards, and an R&D100 technology innovation award. Dr. Sankovic has authored or co-authored over 70 technical publications in topics ranging from space propulsion and power to fluid mechanics and biomedical sciences.

John Schellhorn is the President and CEO of Monteris Medical. Prior to joining Monteris, John served as the Chief Commercialization Officer for BÂRRX Medical, and as President and CEO of Softscope Medical Technologies Inc. Both companies were successfully acquired by strategic partners during his tenure. Prior to Softscope, John held positions as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Peripheral Vascular Division of ev3 Inc., Vice President and General Manager International for ACMI Corporation, and various management positions within Boston Scientific. John earned a B.A, Summa Cum Laude, from Long Island University. Prior to his commercial career, he served 7 years as a U.S. Marine Corps pilot.

Dr Jonathan Broomberg studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and then read PPE at Balliol College. He subsequently completed MSc and PHD degrees in Health Economics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. Jonathan joined Discovery Health in 2005 as Head of Strategy, and was appointed CEO in 2010. Prior to joining Discovery, Jonathan was a director of Praxis Capital, which managed private equity and venture capital investments in the healthcare and education sectors. Prior to that, he spent several years in academic research and consultancy in health economics and policy, and also served as a Special Advisor to Dr Nkosozana Zuma, the first Minister of Health in the post apartheid government. Alongside his private sector interests, Jonathan maintains a strong interest and engagement with South African and global health policy and public health affairs. He spent 5 years as a member of the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, including serving as Chair for two funding rounds. He is also a director of the Soul City Institute for Health Communications.

Michael currently serves as a General Partner at Flare Capital Partners. Prior to joining Flare, Michael served as founding general partner of Flybridge Capital Partners. He also served on the board of International Data Group, the initial flagship Limited Partner for the IDG Ventures global network of funds and Flybridge Capital Partners. Current and prior board seats include BlueTarp Financial, Explorys, Functional Neuromodulation, Iora Health, MicroCHIPS, Nuvesse, PolyRemedy, Predictive Biosciences, Predilytics, T2 Biosystems, TARIS Biomedical and VidSys. Previously, Michael focused on emerging-growth company financings with Polaris Partners, was a senior vice president and founding partner of GCC Investments, and held positions at Wasserstein Perella & Co., Morgan Stanley & Co. and Credit Suisse First Boston. Michael currently serves as chairman of the Entrepreneurship Committee of the Massachusetts Information Collaborative and on the Investment Committee for the Partners Innovation Fund and Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. Michael also serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Cleveland Clinic, as well as serving on several other boards including the New England Investors’ Committee of Capital Innovation. He was the former chairman of the New England Venture Capital Association and on the Executive Committee of the board of the National Venture Capital Association. Named by the Boston Globe as the “Go-To” investor for life sciences, healthcare and medical devices and a Mass High Tech All-Star, Michael earned a B.A. with honors in Chemistry from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Dr Jonathan Sheffield OBE Chief Executive Officer National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network Dr Jonathan Sheffield is Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health Research, Clinical Research Network. This organisation is funded by the Department of Health to support the practical delivery of both academic and commercial clinical research in the NHS. Jonathan trained as a doctor at Dundee University, before following a career as a histopathologist at Yeovil District Hospital, where he was instrumental in developing its research capabilities. In 2003 he became Medical Director for the Trust, before moving on to University Hospitals Bristol - again as Medical Director. In 2009, Jonathan was awarded an OBE for services to the NHS. In 2011 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians’ Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine – its highest honour - for his contribution in the area of clinical research delivery. A passionate advocate for clinical research, Jonathan's ambition is for participation in a suitable research study to be a standard treatment option, open to all NHS patients.

Jonathan D. Smith, PhD, heads a lab in the Cellular & Molecular Medicine Dept. at the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, and is Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Smith is an active educator of medical and graduate students, and is the Director of the Molecular Medicine PhD Program. His general research interest is in the pathobiology of cardiovascular disease, including cholesterol metabolism, HDL biogenesis and metabolism, and functional genomics of atherosclerosis and atrial fibrillation. Dr. Smith is an author of more than 140 peer reviewed original research publications, and he received the Arteriosclerosis Special Recognition Award by the American Heart Association in 2013.

Jorge Gonzalez- Martinez, MD, is a surgeon for the Epilipsy Center in the Neurologic Institute at Cleveland Clinic. He has been at Cleveland Clinic for the over 12 years, completing his fellowship in 2003 and residency in 2008. Dr. Gonzales-Martinez attained an MD from the University of Sao Paulo Faculty of Medicine in Sao Paul, Brazil.

Dr. Foss joined the research group 3 years ago. He has extensive experience in clinical pharmacology and translational drug development, having done drug development work in both academia and industry. He is the Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Joseph Rosenblum currently serves as the Director of the Medical informatics Department of Maccabi Healthcare Services. He is one of the early pioneers in the field of Medical Informatics. After completing his medical degree and serving as a military surgeon in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Medical Corps, he became the head of the clinical computing department of Sheba Hospital, one of the leading Israeli acute care hospitals. He held this position for 15 years during which time he was instrumental in the establishment of the IDF Medical Corps’ Information and Computing Division. Alongside his position in the Sheba Medical Center, he was vice president R&D in "Comet – Computerized Medical Technologies", a privately owned software provider. He served as the Chief information Officer of the third largest Health Plan for 12 years before joining Maccabi. He also lectures at various academic institutions and forums.

Justin W. Lanning Vice President Business Development & Marketing - Midas+ Healthcare Provider Solutions As Vice President of Business Development & Marketing for the Midas+ Solutions Group within ACS, a Xerox Company, Justin is responsible for daily leadership of sales, marketing, and strategic partnerships. Just joined ACS, a Xerox Company, in April 2011 through the acquisition of CredenceHealth, where Justin served as President & CEO of CredenceHealth. • Currently Serves as the President of Tennessee Health Information Management System Society (HIMSS) • Active member of Leadership Health Care Council, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Healthways Foundation and The Phoenix Club of Nashville Prior to Joining ACS Prior to CredenceHealth, Justin served as a key leader for Healthways, Inc. in Nashville, TN. During his time at Healthways, Justin was responsible for designing and building multiple organizational structures to meet the company’s many high growth needs. His responsibilities included influencing multiple key executives and colleagues to assure decisions resulted in optimal ROI, P&L, and strategic roadmap alignment within a rapidly growing $750 million public company and the leader in the disease management and wellness industries for government, commercial health plans, and employers. Justin was also responsible for operations, solutions, and technology strategies and innovation for more than $300 million of revenue and for guiding customer relationships. Educational Background • Missouri State University

Keith Boettiger has almost 20 years of experience in the medical device field. For the past two years, he has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for St. Jude Medical’s Chronic Pain Therapies and Movement Disorders division. Prior to that role, Mr. Boettiger served in multiple sales and sales leadership roles at St. Jude Medical and Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson and Johnson company. Keith received a Bachelor of Science degree from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, after which he served in the United States Peace Corps in Tambacounda, Senegal in West Africa with the Senegal Ministry of Forestry.

Kevin A. Lobo was appointed Chairman of the Board on July 22, 2014 in addition to his responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer of Stryker Corporation, which he assumed on October 1, 2012. Mr. Lobo joined Stryker in April 2011, and had previously been Group President of Orthopaedics. Mr. Lobo serves on the Board of Directors for Parker Hannifin Corporation, the global leader in motion and control technologies. He is also a board member of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the Business Leaders for Michigan and United Way for Kalamazoo/Battle Creek regions, and is a member of the Business Roundtable. Mr. Lobo has a broad business career that includes executive positions in general management and finance. After holding finance positions with KPMG, Unilever and Kraft Canada he spent eight years with Rhone-Poulenc, including roles based in Europe as Worldwide Corporate Controller of the chemical spin-out, Rhodia, and General Manager of Specialty Phosphates EMEA. He then spent eight years at Johnson & Johnson, including CFO of McNeil Consumer Healthcare and Ortho Women’s Health & Urology, President of J&J Medical Products Canada and President of Ethicon Endo Surgery.

Kirsten Axelsen is a Vice President in Worldwide Policy at Pfizer leading the Global Policy team. She leads a team that analyses how changes in state and federal health policy affect Pfizer, healthcare providers and their patients, and offers strategic guidance based on the analysis. Kirsten began her career at Pfizer in 2000. Kirsten also led the International Policy team and serves on Pfizer’s Real World Data Steering Committee. Kirsten has published studies on medication adherence and the effect of co-pay and access restrictions on utilization of prescription drugs and other healthcare services and the value of real world data for healthcare delivery improvement. Kirsten earned a B.S. in Economics, from The University of Puget Sound, and an M.S. in Economics from the University of Texas, Austin. In 2006, Kirsten was awarded a Global Health Fellowship to work with the International Trachoma Initiative in Ethiopia. Prior to joining Pfizer she worked in litigation for Arthur Andersen.

Krai Chatamra is a Senior Director within the Neuroscience Division at AbbVie Inc. Since 2008, he has led the clinical development of Duopa, a drug-device combination product now approved in the USA for the treatment of motor fluctuations in patients with Advanced Parkinson’s disease. Dr Chatamra has more than 20 years of clinical research experience within academia and industry having worked extensively within neuroscience (multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, generalized anxiety disorder, Ménière’s disease, and vestibular vertigo) as well as other therapeutic indications including neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, oncology, atherosclerosis, acute myocardial infraction, asthma and recurrent sinusitis. He has worked on many successful product registrations in multiple regions worldwide. Prior AbbVie, Dr Chatamra was with Solvay pharmaceuticals in the Netherlands where initial work on Duopa Phase 3 program was initiated. Before Solvay, he spent 8 years with Pfizer in the UK and France where he contributed greatly to the development of Lyrica. Dr Chatamra also worked at Merck KGaA and Innovex, a Clinical Research Organization earlier in his career. Dr Chatamra is a graduate of Bristol University (UK) with BSc (Hons) and PhD in physiology.

Dr Lara Jehi is an adult epileptologist at the Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center. She serves there as the head of the Outcomes Research Program, and the Director of Research. In these roles, her research interests have focused on developing a better understanding of the mechanisms of seizure recurrence after epilepsy surgery, and her clinical role has led the incorporation of patient-reported outcome measures into the routine clinical practice at her center. She serves as the Associate Program Director of the Clinical Research Unit at Cleveland Clinic within the auspices of the NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative. Dr. Jehi is also currently serving in leadership roles on many educational committees within the American Epilepsy Society and American Academy of Neurology, and is an ad-Hoc reviewer for the Acute Neuronal Injury and Epilepsy Study Section at NIH. She is board certified in Neurology and Psychiatry, and Clinical Neurophysiology, has authored several peer-reviewed original manuscripts, editorials and book chapters addressing various aspects of medical and surgical treatment of epilepsy. Her work has been published in several high-impact journals including Brain, Neurology, and Lancet Neurology, among others. She serves on the editorial board of Epilepsia, the official journal of the International league Against Epilepsy, and is a guest editor for Neurotherapeutics, the official journal of the American Society of Experimental Neurotherapeutics, and Continuum, the educational journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Jehi has been an invited speaker in several national and international meetings, including the Middle East, India, Europe, and Brasil.

Lawrence T. Friedhoff, MD, PhD, FACP Chief Development Officer, Axovant Sciences, Inc. Dr. Lawrence T. Friedhoff has a 30-year record of identifying promising drug candidates and managing all phases of their development, always with an eye toward fulfilling drug approval requirements. He has also managed post-FDA-approval activities including marketing-related, safety surveillance, and post-approval studies. Led the development of Aricept® (donepezil), the top-selling drug for Alzheimer's disease in history Led the new drug approval team for Aciphex® (rabeprazole) for the treatment of heartburn Senior Vice President, Research & Development at Roivant Sciences, Inc. Formerly with Eisai, Squibb, and Andrx Author of the book New Drugs and author or co-author of many peer-reviewed publications in major scientific journals PhD from Columbia University in Chemistry; MD from New York University; Fellow, American College of Physicians

Lisa Suennen is Managing Partner at Venture Valkyrie Consulting, which provides business advisory services to large companies, venture capital and private equity firms and non-profit organizations in the healthcare field about both investment and digital health strategy Previously Lisa spent 15 years with Psilos Group, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm where she was a co-founder and Partner. Prior to Psilos, Lisa helped build Merit Behavioral Care (formerly American Biodyne, Inc), an $800mm behavioral healthcare company where she held various senior executive roles from its early start-up days through exit. Previously, Lisa held various positions in marketing and product management in companies in the high technology field. Lisa is currently and Board Member of digital health companies Beyond Lucid Technologies, Pokitdok, and Humetrix; a Board Member of the Dignity Health Foundation. She is also on the Advisory Boards of Qualcomm Life, Sanofi Integrated Care, the California Health Care Foundation Innovation Fund, BDC Capital and HealthXL. Lisa also serves as an Advisor to innovation consulting firm Accelevate, Inc. Lisa has served on numerous private, public and not-for-profit boards during her career. Lisa writes a widely read blog on healthcare and healthcare investing at www.venturevalkyrie.com. She has recently published her first book: Tech Tonics, Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare with Technology, coauthored with Dr. David Shaywitz. Together they also host a twice a month podcast, also called Tech Tonics, focused on the people and passion at the intersection of technology and health. Lisa an M.A. in political science, a B.A. in political science and a B.A. in mass communications, all from the University of California, Berkeley, where she now teaches graduate courses on healthcare venture capital and the changing healthcare economy as a faculty member at the Haas School of Business. Lisa also sits on the National Advisory Council of the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.

Lissy Hu is the CEO of CarePort Health, a venture-backed digital health company that she co-founded out of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School. CarePort works with leading health systems and accountable care organizations to guide patient decision-making about post-hospital care. During her previous work on a high-cost Medicare demonstration project, Hu observed first-hand the frustrations patients and their families face when finding after-care. Often they have little more information than an address and phone number. CarePort was founded to address this critical need. CarePort is the winner of the Harvard Business School Business Plan Competition, a Dell Social Innovation Finalist, and has been named to the list of 10 Boston Healthcare Companies to Watch. CarePort has been featured in Forbes, Xconomy, and industry events such as the Case Management Society for America National Conference and the Long Term Post Acute Care Summit. Hu graduated from Columbia University, Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. She is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School joint-degree program, where she was a Kaplan Life Sciences Fellow

MD: Harvard Medical School PhD: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Residency: Johns Hopkins Hospital Previous posts: - Assistant Professor of Neurology, Johns Hopkins - Director, Center for Memory and Brain Health, Sinai - Hospital of Baltimore - Founder and Chief Medical Officer, NeurExpand Brain Center Current positions: Medical Director, NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center - Affiliate staff, Johns Hopkins Howard County General Hospital A Harvard and Johns Hopkins-trained neurologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Fotuhi is widely regarded as an authority on memory and aging, and ways to improve cognitive performance. Leading media such as the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, and the Today Show have interviewed him about his research and innovative treatment program. Dr. Fotuhi is also the author of three books, including the recently released Boost Your Brain, the New Art and Science Behind Enhanced Brain Performance. Dr. Fotuhi has had 25 years of teaching, clinical work, and neuroscience research experience at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. He conducts clinical research, writes books, and gives public lectures about brain health, prevention of Alzheimer's disease, and expanding brain capacity. He is currently the medical director of NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center, an affiliate staff at Johns Hopkins Howard County General Hospital, and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Demitrack is a psychiatrist with 20 years of experience in the treatment and study of mood disorders and related conditions. He was previously Assistant Vice President of Neuroscience at Wyeth, where he directed post marketing clinical development in support of the Effexor XR brand. Prior to Wyeth, Dr. Demitrack was Medical Director for the New Antidepressant Team at Lilly Research Laboratories. During his tenure at Lilly, he oversaw the registration development and NDA submission of the novel antidepressant, Duloxetine. Prior to his industry experience, he served on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical Center Department of Psychiatry where he pursued research activities in the neuroendocrine correlates of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, and served as Director of the Michigan Eating Disorders Program. Dr. Demitrack has published extensively on the neuroendocrinology of mood disorders

Dr. Hyman is a practicing family physician, a New York Times bestselling author, and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of Functional Medicine. He is the Pritzker Foundation Chair in Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. He is Founder and Director of The UltraWellness Center, chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine, medical editor of The Huffington Post, and a regular medical contributor in the media for CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, CNN, The Dr. Oz Show, and more.

Mark Low, Managing Director of the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center (GCIC) and the NIH Center for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) at Cleveland Clinic, comes to these roles with a career of building successful programs to introduce new technologies to address new market opportunities in healthcare. He has managed all facets of product and market development spanning diagnostic and interventional cardiology, interventional radiology and neuroradiology, stroke treatment, image-guided surgery, drug delivery and oncology. He has served on the senior management team of TomTec Imaging Systems, Image Guided Technologies, EKOS Corporation, and Sonus Pharmaceuticals. Prior to concentrating his focus on start-up ventures and early stage market development, Mr. Low held trailblazing positions in marketing and business development for Hewlett-Packard's Medical Products Group. Specializing in cardiovascular ultrasound, Mr. Low managed high performance cardiac diagnostic systems, introducing 3D and stress echocardiography, and catheter-based intravascular ultrasound, among other applications. In conjunction with these programs Mr. Low managed strategic relationships with various corporate partners, investors, universities, inventors, clinical investigators and manufacturers. Mr. Low received a B.A. degree in Natural Science from Johns Hopkins University, an M.S. degree in Physiology from the Medical College of Wisconsin, and an M.S. degree in Technical Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Mark E. Nuttall, Ph.D Vice President, Business Development & Licensing, Neuroscience Mark is Vice President and Head of Neuroscience Business Development and Licensing. In addition his group also supports Europe, Middle-East and African (EMEA) regional deals. His group has executed global licensing deals in the therapeutic areas of Alzheimer’s disease, Depression and Pain. In addition to new licensing deals to build the Neuroscience portfolio the group supports existing agreements and partnerships. Mark originally joined business development at Centocor, a J&J operating company, in 2003. Mark led the scientific evaluation of licensing and acquisition opportunities for the Immunology/ Pulmonary area across J&J and also focused on identifying new later stage opportunities for Centocor in Rheumatology, Gastroenterology and Dermatology. Mark has also led and executed global and regional deals in North America, Europe and Asia. Deals signed have included platform/technology agreements, compounds in development and commercial agreements. Prior to joining J&J, Mark worked in Discovery Research, Project Management and Business Development at GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to this, he completed post-doctoral studies at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Penn State University. Mark holds a B.Sc (Hons.) from University College Cardiff, Wales and a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has served on various academic and industrial scientific advisory boards and has published over fifty full scientific papers in the areas of musculoskeletal and metabolic diseases.

Mark Stovsky MD MBA FACS serves as a Staff Urologist in the Cleveland Clinic Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, Science & Technology Innovations Officer at Cleveland Clinic Innovations as well as Associate Professor of Surgery (Urology) in the CCF Lerner School of Medicine. Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic and Innovations, Mark was an attending urologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center where he served as Director of the Men's Health and Genitourinary Stone Center and Urology Institute Quality Officer as well as Chief of the Division of Urology and Medical Director for Urology Services at UH Richmond Medical Center.

Dr. Stovsky’s areas of clinical expertise including BPH/male voiding dysfunction, prostate cancer and urinary tract stone disease. Dr. Stovsky has an extensive business background in private equity and life science consulting as well as new venture development including transaction analysis and due diligence for health care, life science and biotechnology businesses. Mark’s private equity consulting experience includes transaction analysis for early stage, acquisition and add-on ventures.

Mark currently serves on the boards of the American Association of Clinical Urologists (AACU) and the American Urological Association (AUA) North Central Section. Dr. Stovsky is currently President of the AACU and Treasurer of the NCS. He is Past President of the Cleveland Urological Society and the Ohio Urological Society as well as a past board member of the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland/Northern Ohio Medical Association. Dr. Stovsky recently completed the AUA Leadership Program (2012/2013 class). He has also been honored with selection to Best Doctors in America (2010 - present). Mark also serves on the boards of American Friends of Magen David Adom (Cleveland Chapter - Israel Red Cross) and Park Synagogue.

Dr. Stovsky earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern. He also holds an MBA (strategic planning) from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh where he was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma. Dr. Stovsky completed his urology residency training at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Maulik Nanavaty is Senior Vice President and President, Neuromodulation Division for Boston Scientific and a member of its Executive Committee. In this role, he is responsible for the innovation leader in less-invasive microelectronic implantable technologies used to treat chronic neuropathic pain. Prior to his current role, Nanavaty was President, Representative Director of Boston Scientific Japan. Previously, he was Vice President and General Manager of the Company’s Interventional Cardiology business in Japan. During his tenure, Nanavaty managed the successful expansion of Cardiology business in that country. He joined Boston Scientific in 2005 as Vice President for Corporate Strategy for Japan, where he led business transformation and increased operational efficiency. Prior to joining Boston Scientific, Nanavaty spent 16 years working in various executive positions at Baxter International, Inc., and Baxter Japan. Nanavaty earned a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Illinois and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. Nanavaty is a member of the Board of Directors for the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA). CLSA is an independent 501(c)(6) organization devoted to researching and advocating policy to forward the interests of California’s biomedical community.

Frank Jackson, the 56th Mayor of Cleveland, lives in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, where he grew up. He graduated from Cleveland Public Schools and served in the U.S. Army. After returning to Cleveland, he earned an associate’s degree from Cuyahoga Community College and his BA ,MS, and JD from Cleveland State University. He began his public service career as an Assistant City Prosecutor in the Cleveland Municipal Court Clerk’s Office. From 1990 through 2005, Jackson represented Cleveland’s 5th Ward on Cleveland City Council. From 2002-2005, Jackson also served as President of Cleveland City Council. In January, 2006, Jackson began his tenure as Mayor of Cleveland. As Mayor, Jackson is focused ensuring that the city offers an excellent quality of life for every resident, business and visitor and is addressing every aspect of City operations and policy to guarantee that he reaches that goal, including: Quality of Life Crafting Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools, a child-centered plan that would lead to systemic change in how we educate our children Bringing together Ohio colleges, universities, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and educational stakeholders to create the Higher Education Compact, a commitment to helping Cleveland’s children succeed in college Establishing a scholarship for CMSD students, city employees and their children Improving the health of Clevelanders through the Healthy Cleveland Initiative, in partnership with Cleveland City Council and the four major local hospital systems Public Safety Revising the Use of Deadly Force Policy to help heal the breach between the community and the police Building partnerships with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and community organizations to address gun violence, youth violence and violence prevention Improving police officer training and implemented new technology to reduce response time and provide better service Development Investing more than $160 million in Cleveland’s neighborhoods since 2008, on streetscapes, recreation facilities, city parks and other capital improvements Working with the public sector to encourage a reported $7 billion in development in Cleveland, including the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, the Cleveland Horseshoe Casino, the Cleveland Convention Center and Global Center for Health Innovation, Flats East Bank Project, Uptown, and the Campus Village Project Building a sustainable economy through Sustainable Cleveland 2019, a 10-year initiative to grow a sustainable economy throughout the region Presenting Cleveland’s Downtown Lakefront Development Plan to encourage 3.5 million square feet in new development that encourages recreation, entertainment commercial

Michael currently serves as a General Partner at Flare Capital Partners. Prior to joining Flare, Michael served as founding general partner of Flybridge Capital Partners. He also served on the board of International Data Group, the initial flagship Limited Partner for the IDG Ventures global network of funds and Flybridge Capital Partners. Current and prior board seats include BlueTarp Financial, Explorys, Functional Neuromodulation, Iora Health, MicroCHIPS, Nuvesse, PolyRemedy, Predictive Biosciences, Predilytics, T2 Biosystems, TARIS Biomedical and VidSys. Previously, Michael focused on emerging-growth company financings with Polaris Partners, was a senior vice president and founding partner of GCC Investments, and held positions at Wasserstein Perella & Co., Morgan Stanley & Co. and Credit Suisse First Boston. Michael currently serves as chairman of the Entrepreneurship Committee of the Massachusetts Information Collaborative and on the Investment Committee for the Partners Innovation Fund and Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. Michael also serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Cleveland Clinic, as well as serving on several other boards including the New England Investors’ Committee of Capital Innovation. He was the former chairman of the New England Venture Capital Association and on the Executive Committee of the board of the National Venture Capital Association. Named by the Boston Globe as the “Go-To” investor for life sciences, healthcare and medical devices and a Mass High Tech All-Star, Michael earned a B.A. with honors in Chemistry from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Michael Hayden joined Teva as President of Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer in May 2012.

He is also currently the Killam Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and Canada Research Chair in Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine. He is also the founder and Senior Scientist of the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia.

Prior to joining Teva, he founded three biotechnology companies (NeuroVir, Aspreva Pharmaceuticals and Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.) and served as Chief Scientific Officer of Xenon from 2000 to 2012. He also served as a director of Med Biogene Inc. from 2010 to 2011.

He has received numerous awards, including the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award in 2011, the Order of Canada Award in 2010, the highest honor that Canada can give its citizens for exceptional achievement and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Canadian Society of Clinical Investigation in 1998, and in 2008 he was named Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year.

Dr. Hayden received his MB ChB in Medicine in 1975, Ph.D. in Genetics in 1979 and DCH Diploma in Child Health in 1979 from the University of Cape Town. He received his American Board Certification in both internal medicine and clinical genetics from Harvard Medical School in 1982 and an FRCPC in internal medicine from the University of British Columbia in 1984.

Dr. Michael Phillips is the Director of Business Development in the Imaging Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Phillips is a member of the Board of Governors of the Cleveland Clinic and is the Co-Chair of the Care Affordability Task Force which identifies and develops ways to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of care delivered at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Phillips is interested in the economics of medicine, particularly the business challenges facing academic medical centers in a changing healthcare environment.

Previously Dr. Phillips served as the Vice Chairman of Research and Academic Affairs in the Imaging Institute and Section Head for the Section of Imaging Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Phillips authored or co-authored numerous articles and book chapters. The underlying goal of his imaging research was to develop functional metrics to better understand and more directly measure disease progression in neurodegenerative diseases. His research was funded by multiple sources including the NIH, State of Ohio, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the Department of Defense.

Since 2002, Dr. Phillips has been a practicing clinical neuroradiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. After completing his undergraduate studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts, Dr. Phillips went on to study medicine and earn his medical degree from Columbia University in New York City. Subsequently, he did a radiology residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a neuroradiology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He received an MBA from the University of Michigan in 2013.

Mike Rhodin is senior vice president, IBM Watson. IBM Watson is accelerating a new class of cognitive software, services and apps that will fuel a diverse cloud-based ecosystem of enterprises, academic institutions and entrepreneurs. Mike also leads the recently announced Watson Health division. Watson Health is focused the idea that the individual should be at the center of efforts to improve health outcomes and is anchored by a first-of-its-kind, HIPAA-enabled data health cloud to give all stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem a more complete picture of the many factors that affect people’s health.Before heading up Watson, Mike led the Software Solutions Group delivering industry-specific solutions in high-growth areas such as Business Analytics, Smarter Commerce, Smarter Cities and Social Business.Throughout his 30 years at IBM, Mike’s career has been infused with a passion for helping clients extract value from their technology investments, improving their business performance, and simplifying the way people work.

Mike has held a number of general management positions across IBM, including the Software business where he led the introduction of IBM’s social business platform, which IDC has deemed #1 for four years in a row. Mike was also instrumental in helping build IBM’s globally integrated enterprise when he lead IBM Northeast Europe, which included Germany, UK, Switzerland, Austria and the Nordics.

A major champion of technology and IBM’s advancements in the industry, Mike has delivered a number of speeches worldwide, including Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Harvard Law School. Mike also serves on the University of Michigan Computer Science and Engineering National Advisory Board.Mike joined IBM in 1984 after he graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. #GoWolverines

Dr. Roizen is Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of its Wellness Institute. The Institute’s programs have helped Clinic employees lose 455,000 pounds; reduce smokers from 15.4 to 5.2%; flatten the cost curve, and developed StressFreeNow & other programs that The Institute’s Enterprise share with 40 corporations. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams, AOA from UCSF School of Medicine, certified in Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology, authored 175 peer reviewed publications, & served 16 years on FDA advisory committees. Dr. Roizen founded twelve companies, including RealAge, co-invented a drug approved by FDA, and published a series of highly popular bestsellers including 4 #1 New York Times bestsellers: translated into 44 languages and ranked #1 in five countries He and Dr. Oz write a daily column syndicated to 134 newspapers; hosts a two-hour radio show weekly. He shared a daytime Emmy, an Elle, a lifetime achievement award, and the Paul Rogers award for best medical communicator from the National Library of Medicine.

Michael A. Vogelbaum, MD, PhD, FAANS, FACS is a Board Certified Neurosurgeon who is Associate Director of the Rose Ella Burkhardt Brain Tumor and NeuroOncology Center (BTNC) and Director of the BTNC’s Center for Translational Therapeutics at the Cleveland Clinic, where he holds the Robert W. and Kathryn B. Lamborn Chair in NeuroOncology. He also holds the position of Professor of Surgery (Neurosurgery) at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. In addition to his active neurosurgery and radiosurgery practice, Dr. Vogelbaum has been Primary Investigator of numerous local and national clinical trials of new drugs and surgical techniques and devices for brain tumors. He has an externally funded basic science and translational research laboratory which focuses on immunobiology of brain tumors, and various aspects of drug delivery to brain tumors. He is currently developing novel devices for delivering therapeutics directly to the brain and introducing them into clinical trial. He is the Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Infuseon Therapeutics, Inc., a company that was spun-off from Cleveland Clinic Innovations to commercialize his therapeutic delivery devices. Dr. Vogelbaum is a founding member of RANO (Response Assessment in NeuroOncology), Chair of the Neurosurgery Committee for NRG Oncology, and he has been a Vice President of the Society for NeuroOncology (SNO). He is a member of the editorial board for the journals Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgery, Tumor Section co-Editor of World Neurosurgery and he is co-Editor of the comprehensive textbook in neuro-oncology, Principles and Practice of Neuro-Oncology (2011).

Mignon L. Clyburn served as Acting Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, following her appointment by President Barack Obama on May 20, 2013. As Commissioner, she is serving a second term as a Democrat on the Commission, for which she was sworn in on February 19, 2013 following her re-nomination by the President and confirmation by the United States Senate. Clyburn began her service at the FCC in August, 2009, after spending 11 years as a member of the sixth district on the Public Service Commission (PSC) of South Carolina. She served as its chair from July 2002 through June 2004. Prior to her service on the PSC, Clyburn was the publisher and general manager of The Coastal Times, a Charleston-based weekly newspaper that focused primarily on issues affecting the African American community. She co-owned and operated the family-founded newspaper for 14 years. A longtime champion of consumers and a defender of the public interest, Commissioner Clyburn considers every Commission proceeding with an eye toward how it will affect each and every American. She is a strong advocate for enhanced accessibility in communications for disabled citizens, and works closely with representative groups for the deaf and hard of hearing. She has fought to promote strong competition across all communications platforms, believing that the more robust and competitive the marketplace, the less need there is for regulation. However, when the market is not adequately addressing consumer concerns, Clyburn is an outspoken champion for smart, targeted regulatory action. She has pushed for media ownership rules that reflect the demographics of America, affordable universal telephone and high-speed internet access, greater broadband deployment and adoption throughout the nation, and transparency in regulation. Commissioner Clyburn is a member of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, Federal-State Joint Board on Separations, and the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services, all of which she chaired for three years during her first term at the FCC. Clyburn is a graduate of the University of South Carolina, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Banking, Finance and Economics.

Dr. Michael T. Modic received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in 1975. He then completed his residency in radiology and fellowship in neuroradiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Modic joined the faculty of University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University as Assistant Professor in 1980. In 1981 Dr. Modic returned to the Cleveland Clinic and in 1982 was appointed Head of the Section of Magnetic Resonance. In 1985, he returned to Case Western Reserve School of Medicine at University Hospitals as Director of Magnetic Resonance and Neuroradiology. During that time, Dr. Modic also held the rank of Professor of Radiology, Neurology, General Medical Sciences and Neurosurgery. In 1989, Dr. Modic returned to the Cleveland Clinic as Chairman of Radiology and was appointed Professor of Radiology at the Ohio State University. In 2000, he was appointed to the Board of Governors at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. In 2004, Dr. Modic was appointed Professor of Radiology, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. In 2006, Dr. Modic was appointed as Chairman of the Neurological Institute. In 2015 Dr. Modic was appointed as Chief Clinical Transformation Officer. Dr. Modic has served on multiple Editorial Boards of peer reviewed journals. He was President of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine for the 1992-1993 year and in 1991 was the recipient of the Society Gold Medal. He is co-author of the text “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Spine” which is in its second edition and the author/co-author of over 180 peer reviewed articles related to neuroradiology.

Dr. Naguib has been doing research on the mechanisims of neuro-inflammation and the cannabinoid-2 receptor for over a decade. He is currently a Professor in the Institute of Anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic and the Chief Science Officer of NeuroTherapia.

Murty Vyakarnam, Ph.D. Global Director – R&D, Lubrizol LifeSciences Dr. Vyakarnam is the global head for technology and innovation for Lubrizol LifeSciences covering Medical Devices, Pharma Solutions and Drug Delivery Systems. His current responsibilities include overseeing platform research, applications development and IP strategy across four centers globally. Prior to joining Lubrizol beginning of 2014, Dr. Vyakarnam had a brief stint as the Chief Operating Officer of the multi-institution NIH program RESBIO at the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials, Rutgers University where he also explored some venture opportunities. Dr. Vyakarnam was at Johnson and Johnson for nearly 17 years, most recently as Director R&D at J&J’s Advanced Technologies and Regenerative Medicine organization. Earlier in his career he was responsible for several product development projects leading to launches or clinical trials for J&J operating companies: Ethicon, Ethicon-Endo, Cordis and DePuy. Dr. Vyakarnam received his B.Tech from Andhra University (Visakhapatnam, India), M.S. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) all in Chemical Engineering. He received numerous awards including J&J’s Philip B. Hofmann award for outstanding scientific achievement. He is an inventor on over 30 issued/ published US patents and authored over 10 publications and 2 book chapters.

Neil Jordan is the general manager of Health for Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector. In this role, Jordan acts as chief strategist for the organization’s Health industry initiatives worldwide, including defining and articulating the Microsoft vision for the future of Healthcare, and how Microsoft products, technologies and partner solutions will make it a reality. Blending a deep background in healthcare-focused technology, Jordan leads Microsoft’s collaboration with an ecosystem of partners around the world to provide solutions that meet the specific needs of customers working to deliver better health outcomes for more people. Since the establishment of the global team, he has driven consistent growth of this multi-billion dollar business. Before assuming his current role, Jordan was the head of Healthcare at Microsoft UK where he was responsible for managing strategic operations and senior customer and partner relationships. He led the NHS National Programme for IT, the largest ever civil IT procurement and the largest application delivery in Microsoft’s history, including managing close engagement with the UK government. Jordan joined Microsoft in 2000 as a telecommunications solutions sales manager where he was responsible for market entry into the areas of mobility, hosting and web services solutions in the UK. Prior to joining Microsoft, Jordan worked at IBM Software Group UK for eight years where he was the EMEA strategic alliances manager, leading contract development for the IBM and Lotus software channel organization. Jordan began his career in technology in 1992 working for Lotus in the business communications and partner sales space. Currently residing in the Seattle-area, Jordan is a former professional classical singer and continues to perform and teach. He also sits on the board of King FM, a Seattle-based classical radio station. Jordan is a frequent industry speaker and visiting lecturer at the Royal Society of Medicine, London and the Eastman School in New York. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts honors degree in archaeology and anthropology; and a Master of Arts in biological anthropology from Cambridge University.

Dr. Gunnar Brolinson enters his seventh year as the Tech football team physician. Brolinson joined the program through an initiative between Tech athletics and the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Prior to coming to Tech, Brolinson served as the Medical Director of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at the Toledo Hospital and the Corporate Wellness Program for the ProMedica Health System. He also served as the team physician for the University of Toledo, the United States Ski Team and has acted as a volunteer physician for the United States Olympic Committee.

Brolinson graduated with an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Missouri at Columbia and completed his medical training at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. Frohna is currently the Vice President, Clinical Development and Translational Medicine at Receptos, Inc. in San Diego, California, where he oversees clinical development programs in multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and type II diabetes. Prior to Receptos, he was Chief Medical Officer at ProFibrix, Vice President of Clinical Development at Fibrogen, and Medical Director in Clinical Pharmacology and Specialty Biotherapeutics at Genentech. Dr. Frohna trained in Internal Medicine, and received his MD from Georgetown University, his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania, and his pharmacy degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked in biotechnology since 2001 and has designed and conducted more than 30 clinical trials in hematology, immunology, oncology, neurology, cardiology and regenerative medicine.

Paul Holtzheimer, MD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Surgery and Director of the Mood Disorders Service at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and the White River Junction VA Medical Center. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University. Dr. Holtzheimer attended Pacific Lutheran University where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology. He then attended Dartmouth Medical School, graduating with honors. He completed his psychiatry residency at the University of Washington School of Medicine, followed by a clinical research fellowship in transcranial magnetic stimulation. He joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine in 2004, and in July, 2011 relocated to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Holtzheimer’s clinical and research efforts are focused on treatment-resistant mood disorders, brain imaging and brain stimulation therapies (including transcranial magnetic stimulation [TMS], electroconvulsive therapy [ECT], vagus nerve stimulation [VNS] and deep brain stimulation [DBS]). His clinical research program at Dartmouth aims to better understand the neural circuitry abnormalities underlying treatment-resistant depression and to use this information to develop and advance novel treatment approaches, with a particular emphasis on brain stimulation therapies. Dr. Holtzheimer is an author on over 80 publications in psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery and neuroimaging. He has been an investigator on several clinical trials of novel treatments for mood disorders, including transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation, as well as numerous studies investigating the structural and functional neuroanatomy of mood disorders. He is a member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American College of Psychiatrists, Society of Biological Psychiatry, and the International Society for Electroconvulsive Therapy and Neurostimulation and the Society for Neuroscience.

Paul Stypulkowski, PhD is a Distinguished Scientist in the Neuromodulation Division of Medtronic, Inc., the world’s largest medical device company. In this role he is responsible for the identification and development of new therapy and technology opportunities, with a specific focus on applications of brain stimulation. Areas of active investigation include novel treatments for disabling conditions such as movement disorders, epilepsy, and neuropsychiatric and cognitive disorders such as OCD, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease. Paul has over 25 years of experience in the biomedical industry, primarily focused on early therapy ventures of neuroprosthetic and neurostimulation technologies. His work in the field has spanned pre-clinical electrophysiology research, clinical trials, and technology development on a number of medical devices, most notably, the first cochlear implant system approved by the FDA, and Medtronic’s recently developed Deep Brain Stimulation therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Paul is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a Fellow of the Bakken Society, named for Medtronic’s founder, and representing the highest technical honor within the company. He holds a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the University of Connecticut, and has numerous publications and patents in the field of applied and translational neurosciences.

Peter A. Rasmussen, MD, is Director of the Cerebrovascular Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Medical Director of Distance Health. Dr. Rasmussen’s clinical interests are in hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, primarily focusing on cerebral aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations and occlusive intracranial atherosclerotic disease. He maintains a busy practice offering patients either open microsurgery or endovascular, minimally invasive treatment options. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin, completed his residency in neurosurgery at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, completed fellowship training in interventional neuroradiology/endovascular neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, as well as a fellowship in microsurgical treatment of cerebrovascular disease also at the Cleveland Clinic. He joined the faculty at the Cleveland Clinic in 2000. He has authored numerous scientific papers and book chapters. Currently he is an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery and American Journal of Neuroradiology. During his career, Dr. Rasmussen has maintained an active interest in applied or translational research acting as the Co-Director of the Endovascular Neurosurgery Research Laboratory. He is an active member of many professional organizations including the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery, and the Joint Sections on Neurotrauma, Critical Care and Cerebrovascular Surgery. Dr. Rasmussen is a past President of the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS), past Vice Chair of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Cerebrovascular Section, and has been appointed as a fellow to both the American Heart Association (FAHA) and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (FAANS).

Dr. Aras is a Co-founder and President & CEO for Juventas Therapeutics. He has led the Company since its inception in 2007 and has leveraged his scientific research and business experience to lead Juventas towards commercialization of its innovative therapies. Dr. Aras has successfully advanced Juventas’ technologies from the laboratory into mid-stage clinical trials. Prior to leading Juventas, Dr. Aras was the Director of Life Science Commercialization at Cleveland Clinic Innovations where he managed commercialization of all biotechnology and pharmaceutical related technologies developed at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Aras has held research positions at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital and has published articles in several leading scientific journals. He received a B.S. from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in biomedical research from New York University.

Mr. Rasesh “Sesh” Thakkar serves as a Senior Managing Director of Tavistock Group and has been with the Group for 25+ years. Mr. Thakkar has resided on 3 continents in the last several years and his areas of experience ranges across industries such as life sciences, financial services, real estate, leisure services and retailing as well as corporate finance and structures, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and operations. He’s also known for being one of the visionaries behind Lake Nona and its Medical City. Mr. Thakkar currently serves on the board of directors and as an officer and director of numerous international corporations primarily associated with the Tavistock Group of companies. He helps determine target sectors for investment, negotiates acquisitions/sales, and transitions acquisitions into the Group’s holdings. Mr. Thakkar serves as a Director of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, the University of Florida Cancer Center at Orlando Health, and the The Florida Council of 100.

Ravi Sachdev joined CD&R in 2015. Previously, he served as a Managing Director and Co-head of Healthcare Services at J.P. Morgan and held similar positions at Deutsche Bank and Peter J. Solomon Company, advising senior healthcare company executives on strategic initiatives, M&A and capital markets. Mr. Sachdev has advised a wide range of healthcare transactions, including CD&R’s acquisition of PharMEDium and sale of AssuraMed. He received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and he is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Steve Madden, Ltd.

Renée Finley is President and CEO of GuideWell Innovation with a mission of transforming the health industry by rapidly accelerating health innovation. In this role, Finley provides leadership to GuideWell’s Innovation Center in Lake Nona, a global epicenter of health excellence, where thought leaders converge to address current state issues, evaluate emerging trends, and commercialize new solutions that are reshaping the health industry. Finley leads industry changing research and development, and serves as the executive champion for key innovation partnerships including the Lake Nona Institute and Healthbox, an entrepreneurial accelerator and investment fund for health care startups. Additionally, she is responsible for promoting and enabling an enterprise-wide culture of innovation and imagination for GuideWell and its family of companies including, Florida Blue, the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in Florida.

Prior to this role, Finley served in an 18-month appointed position for the Jacksonville Mayor’s office to establish and lead the first ever Office of Public Private Partnerships, where she was responsible for encouraging the use of public-private partnerships to support the mayor’s priorities, as well as facilitating state, national and international initiatives and research regarding the use of public-private partnerships for the provision of public services and public facilities.

Finley has held a number of leadership positions at Florida Blue, most recently as vice president of corporate and market strategy where she was responsible for leading corporate and enterprise market strategy, integrated market intelligence and marketing planning and controllership. Finley’s other leadership positions include vice president of health business market segments; president of Incepture, a subsidiary of Florida Blue; CEO and managing director of Novitas Health, LLC., an alliance between Florida Blue and Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield; a Principal for business and alliance development at Navigy, a Florida Blue subsidiary; and as director of IT strategy and architecture. Prior to joining Blue Cross Blue Shield, Finley was Assistant Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta with accountability for automation systems and network management for the southeast banks of the 6th Federal Reserve District.

Finely is active in the community and was named as one of the Top 25 Women of Influence in North East Florida in 2011 and was recognized in 2008 as United Way’s Campaign Chair of the Year for her leadership role in the largest employee campaign in Northeast Florida. She serves on the executive committee of the PineCastle board of directors and chairs the advocacy subcommittee for Women in Local Leadership’s Success By Six Program for the purpose of advancing early childhood development. She also serves on the Board of the Florida Theater, the Florida Blue Foundation, the Jax Regional Health Collaborative, the CIC Wealth Advisory Board, the JU Alumni Board and the advisory board of the JU Davis College of Business. Additionally, she provided leadership to the Marketing Diversity Business Council and was an America’s Health Insurance Plans minority development mentor.

Finley holds a Master of Business Administration from Jacksonville University and has completed executive development programs at University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. Additionally, she received her certification from Wharton for Strategic Thinking and Management for Competitive Advantage and participates as a Wharton Fellow.

Richard C. Mohs retired in 2015 from Eli Lilly and Company where he was Vice President for Neuroscience Early Clinical Development and Distinguished Research Fellow. In that role he supervised all early phase development of molecules for CNS disorders. Dr. Mohs received the Ph.D. is psychology from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral training in pharmacology at the Stanford Medical School; he holds a faculty appointment at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Before joining Eli Lilly in 2002, Dr. Mohs spent 23 years with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine where he was Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific papers, including those describing clinical trials that led to the approval, in the U.S. and other countries, of cholinergic drug treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Rudick graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1975. Following internship and residency in Medicine at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Rudick trained in Neurology at the University of Rochester. During a post-doctoral research fellowship and early career development at the University of Rochester, his studies focused on neurologic consequences of immune disease in animals and immunologic abnormalities in multiple sclerosis(MS) patients. In 1987, Dr. Rudick became Director of the Mellen Center forMultiple Sclerosis at Cleveland Clinic. Driven by a vision of compassionate multidisciplinary MS care integrated with clinical and translational research, the Mellen Center developed an international reputation for excellence in MS treatment, search, and education. Dr. Rudick’s research has focused on experimental therapeutics, including innovative approaches to measuring immunologic, clinical, and imaging features of the disease for use in clinical research and practice. He played key roles in development of IFNß-1a (Avonex) and natalizumab (Tysabri) for relapsing forms of MS. For 30 years, his clinical practice focused on diagnosis and management of MS patients. In addition to directing the Mellen Center, Dr. Rudick was the Chief Clinical Research Officer at Cleveland Clinic from 2001 – 2007, Vice Chairman for Research and Development in the Neurological Institute at Cleveland Clinic from 2007 – 2014, and Co-Principal Investigator of the city wide NIH Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSA) from 2006 – 2014. In 2014, Dr. Rudick transitioned to Biogen, where he is Vice President, Development Science, and Director of the Value Based Medicine MS Innovation Hub. The VBM iHub is charged with enhancing MS care through technology, innovation, and continuous learning.

Rich Wesorick is a co-managing partner at Tarolli, Sundheim, Covell & Tummino LLP, a 30-lawyer intellectual property boutique law firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Rich graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Before attending law school at the University of Dayton School of Law, he worked as an engineer for G.E. Aircraft Engines, during which time he was the inventor of U.S. Patent No. 5,178,003.

Rich has 20 years of experience in the patent field, with the majority of that time spent practicing in the medical device space. Since 2000, Rich has represented academic medical centers and universities in patent matters related to a wide variety of technologies including orthopedic instrumentation, cardiovascular surgery and implants, neuromodulation, healthcare information technology and biotechnology. Rich’s practice includes typical in-house patent counsel functions and indeed much of his time is spent working closely with his clients to craft patent strategy appropriate for both licensing and start-up company opportunities. Rich is a frequent lecturer at academic medical centers, universities, and other organizations on intellectual property matters and, in particular, medical device protection and commercialization. Rich is also Adjunct Faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Law where he teaches in the Intellectual Property Venture Law Clinic.

Rich is active in several professional organizations such as the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Cleveland Intellectual Property Law Association, the Licensing Executives Society, the Association of University Technology Managers, and the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property.

Dr. Fox is Staff Neurologist at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis and Vice-Chair for Research of the Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, neurology training at the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in Clinical Research from Case Western Reserve University, and multiple sclerosis fellowship training at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Fox’s current research interests focus clinical trials in multiple sclerosis, innovative MRI techniques to evaluate tissue recovery after injury and the effects of MS treatments, as well as MS patient decision-making and tolerance to risk. He serves as an advisor for many clinical trials, including the principal investigator of the NIH-funded SPRINT-MS phase II trial of ibudilast in progressive MS. In addition, he serves as the Managing Director of the NARCOMS MS Patient Registry, which currently follows over 12,000 people with MS. Dr. Fox serves as a member of various advisory and review committees for the National MS Society (USA) and National Institutes of Health (USA), the General Advisory Council for the Cleveland Clinic Clinical Research Unit, the Editorial Board of Neurology and Multiple Sclerosis Journal, and as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry.

Robert Spurr | US Country Head and Vice President, Patient Access & Health Policy ,

Bob Spurr is US Country Head and Vice President, Patient Access and Health Policy for US General Medicines at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NPC). He is responsible for strategically aligning resources to strengthen the value the company brings to leading customers, including pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans’ Affairs, Department of Defense, senior care, chain pharmacies, wholesalers, employers, patients and physicians. Bob is also responsible for leading US Health Policy, State Government Affairs, the Patient & Specialty Services team, as well as sales, marketing and overall strategic development of the company’s Established Medicines business. He is a member of the US Country Executive Committee, the US General Medicines Executive Committee and the US Pharmaceutical Executive Committee. Bob, who has more than 25 years of commercial pharmaceutical experience in sales, marketing and managed markets, most recently held the position of Head of Novartis US Oncology Market Access. He began his career at Sandoz, serving in several sales and managed markets roles over 10 years, before moving to Aventis where he led a number of marketing and managed care teams. Bob later joined Ortho-McNeil where he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for its Institutional Franchise. Before joining Novartis US Oncology in 2012, Bob held sales and marketing executive leadership positions at Lantheus Medical Imaging and Repligen Corporation. Throughout his career, Bob has been an action-oriented leader, committed to ensuring that appropriate patients have access to the medications they need. As Head of US Oncology Market Access, he led overall strategic planning and tactical execution for all Oncology Managed Markets/Market Access activities across the portfolio. Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Keene State College in New Hampshire and earned an Executive MBA from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Robert Wells leads the Healthymagination team exploring key opportunities to increase the quality, access and affordability of healthcare, including GE’s Brain Health Initiative and the healthyCities program. Prior to joining GE, Robert served with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris from 2009 to 2012 as head of the Biotechnology Unit in the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry. There he covered a broad range of policy-related topics in various emerging fields, such as innovation in human health and biomedicine, industrial biotechnology, synthetic biology, biosecurity, and the development of knowledge networks and markets using intellectual property. From 2001 to 2007, Robert was Vice President for Corporate Affairs and International Markets with Affymetrix, Inc. Previously he was Vice President for International Government Relations with Citigroup, based in Washington, DC. Robert did his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and holds a J.D. degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law. He resides in Boston with his wife and daughter.

Rupa Shah obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2000. She then completed a Drug Information Practice Pharmacy Residency with the University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy in Baltimore, MD. Following her residency she worked with Purdue Pharma L.P. from 2001 until 2006 as a Medical Information Specialist in pain management. She then pursued another opportunity with Bristol-Myers Squibb to help lead a large Medical Information team in cardiovascular and endocrinology. Rupa rejoined Purdue in 2010 as an Associate Director, Medical Science Liaison; she focuses primarily on managed care and long-term care initiatives.

Effective legislative engagement requires a 360-degree understanding of the political environment and how a policy initiative either complements or runs counter to that environment. Ryan’s experiences working for one of the most powerful committees on Capitol Hill, one of America’s highest profile technology companies, and national political organizations have given her these expertise. And having spent years directly involved in understanding and engaging critical business concerns, she has become a leading policy operative in the technology industry. As Director of Government Relations for the Intel Corporation, Ryan handled the company’s strategic legislative and political engagement with Republicans in Congress, focusing her advocacy efforts on cybersecurity, trade, competition, intellectual property, privacy, and a range of other issues. Before moving to Intel, she worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee as both Counsel and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel under Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Arlen Specter (PA). Specializing in intellectual property issues and civil law reform, she worked to help pass nearly a dozen bills into law as well as working on the Supreme Court nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Ryan first earned her political stripes, though, working for the Republican National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee. It is the combination of these professional experiences that contribute to Ryan’s unique strategic style, which emphasizes aggressive issue engagement driven by a clear focus on long term political objectives. When not representing the technology industry on the Hill, Ryan spends much of her time learning about wine and has recently enrolled in an intensive sommelier and wine tasting education series.

Samuel Wu, M.D., Ph.D. Managing Director Sam joined MedImmune Ventures in 2010 and leads its West Coast office. Previously he was a principal with SV Life Sciences, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm he had joined in 2002, where he invested in a broad range of biopharmaceutical, platform and medical device companies. Before moving into venture capital, he was an Engagement Manager in the Pharmaceuticals and Corporate Finance practices of McKinsey and Company, where he led teams of consultants serving clients on M&A, portfolio analysis and other strategic issues. Sam holds an A.B. magna cum laude in Biochemistry from Harvard College, attended Stanford University School of Medicine where he earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry as a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow, and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Scott Knoer, MS, PharmD, FASHP is the Chief Pharmacy Officer at the Cleveland Clinic where he leads the pharmacy enterprise which includes a $634 million dollar drug budget and 1,000 FTEs in 12 hospitals with clinics and research facilities in Ohio, Florida, Las Vegas, Toronto and Abu Dhabi, UAE. Dr. Knoer received his B.A. in psychology from Creighton University and his Pharm.D. from the University of Nebraska. He completed a two year administrative residency and received an M.S. degree in hospital pharmacy from the University of Kansas. Dr. Knoer serves in a variety of professional leadership positions including as Chair of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Section of Pharmacy Practice Managers Multi-Hospital Health-System Executive Section Advisory Group, as Contributing Editor for Pharmacy Practice Management for the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacists (AJHP) and on the University Health-System Consortium (UHC) Pharmacy Executive Committee where he is currently Member at Large. Dr. Knoer has published numerous articles and chapters on a variety of topics including the pharmacy enterprise, the pharmacy practice model, leadership development, pharmacy management, healthcare delivery and financing, building and leveraging key relationships, process improvement, benchmarking, and IV robotics. He is a frequent invited lecturer to local, state, national and international audiences having presented in the United States, Canada, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

Scott Seidelmann is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Candescent Health. He launched the company in 2015, guided by a strong mission to enable the people and organizations who are transforming healthcare by making it dramatically more effective and efficient. Candescent Health has built and operates a first-of-its-kind clinical workflow service that is redesigning how people, process, data and technology come together to drive greater value in healthcare. The company has applied its new model first to radiology, based on its decade-long experience running Radisphere, a leading national radiology practice and a pioneer of standards-based care delivery. Scott believes fundamentally that radiology must be accountable to defined quality standards that improve patient outcomes and lower the cost of care by eliminating errors, variation and waste across the health system. From 2005 to 2015, Scott was the co-founder and CEO of Radisphere. Earlier, Scott worked in venture capital and co-founded RISLogic. Scott received a BA from Cornell University.

Semih Sen Associate Director Mubadala Healthcare Semih is Associate Director of Mubadala Development Company’s Healthcare Unit, responsible for development and management of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, National Reference Lab, Tawam Molecular Imaging Centre, Capital Health Visa Screening Centre and Abu Dhabi Telemedicine Centre assets, as well as strategy formation and implementation, acquisitions, and technical and commercial development of projects. Semih also serves as a Board Member of Medical Holding Company, and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Telemedicine Centre. Semih serves as a Member of Global Advisory Council of the ISSCR (International Society for Stem Cell Research) and is also a Member of Policy Advisory Committee at Health Authority Abu Dhabi and Executive Committee and other Board Committees of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. Semih has a vast experience in healthcare project development, start-ups and financing on an international scale. Prior joining Mubadala Healthcare, he served as Director of Business Development at Dubai Healthcare City, a multi-billion dollar healthcare cluster development of Dubai Holding. Previously, he founded Casta, a boutique advisory services and project development firm in Istanbul, Turkey and represented Harvard Medical International as Regional Advisor in Europe and Middle East. Semih has also served as Director of European Business Development for DVI Inc. and served as Board Member of Turkey’s first JCI accredited hospital, Istanbul Memorial, and first full scope cancer treatment facility, Acibadem Cancer Center. In his earlier career he has worked as Asst. Marketing Director for Siemens Leasing and has helped establish Siemens’ first captive financial services company outside Germany. Semih holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bogazici (Bosphorus) University in Business Administration and has attended International Business Strategy Program of London School of Economics, Entrepreneurial Healthcare Management at Harvard University School of Public Health, Private Equity Masterclass at London Business School and Leading High-Performance Healthcare Organizations Program at Harvard Business School. Semih is married and has 3 children.

Stephen Shaya, M.D. graduated from Birmingham Brother Rice High School Summa Cum Laude. He was awarded a Merit Scholarship to attend Wayne State University. During his time at WSU, Dr. Shaya won many leadership awards including the Outstanding Student Leader in 1991 and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant Awardee. He was selected to serve on the Wayne State University Board of Governors from 1991 to 1993. He attended Wayne State University Medical School and graduated in 1996. Dr. Shaya subsequently finished training in Family Practice at North Oakland Medical Center and a fellowship at Wayne State University for Occupational and Environmental Health. Since 2004, Dr. Shaya has been the Chief Medical Officer of J & B Medical, a global healthcare solutions company. J & B is a privately held global health care solutions company based in Wixom, Michigan and started in 1996. We have sixteen different business enterprises and currently has 16 business enterprises and customers in 48 states and 28 countries. . Our innovative company has brought many new ideas and solutions forward to the delivery care and continues to strive to improve patient access and quality. My role oversees all strategy, innovation and growth in our company. By leading the planning and development of our new enterprises, many describe me as an "intrapreneur", someone who behaves as an entrepreneur within a large organization.

Steven Krein is the Co-founder and CEO of StartUp Health, a long-term global growth platform for entrepreneurs transforming healthcare. The StartUp Health Academy, it's flagship coaching program and trusted peer network, includes 165 entrepreneurs from 84 companies in 7 countries and 45 cities. Steven is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, investor, advisor and entrepreneurial coach. Steven has co-founded and led several technology companies since 1995 including OrganizedWisdom, Promotions.com and Webstakes, a global online advertising, direct marketing, and technology company, which he took public on Nasdaq and grew to a $500M market cap before it was acquired by iVillage in 2002. Steven began his online career with Law Journal Extra!, now known as Law.com, the first online legal news and information website, which was acquired by American Lawyer Media. Steven has been a keynote speaker at Google Think Health, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Johnson & Johnson Leadership Summit; and he has been on Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo, Bloomberg TV, The Today Show, CNN, the Fox News Channel, and CNBC's Power Lunch and Marketwatch. Steven is a Member of Corporate Board and the Advisory Board for Health Data Consortium, a nonprofit private/public initiative supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other major players in healthcare. Steven received his J.D. degree from Widener University School of Law and B.A. degree from the University of Maryland-College Park. Steven is a member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) Metro New York Chapter and lives in New York City with his wife and three daughters. Follow him on Twitter @stevenkrein

Steven Snyder works with organizations to accelerate innovation, catalyze discovery, and tap emerging market opportunities. Snyder was Microsoft's first Business Unit General Manager, and was the CEO and co-founder of Net Perceptions, the company that introduced the recommendation engine to Amazon. Snyder and his teams have won numerous awards including the World Technology Award for Commerce, three PC Magazine's Awards for technical excellence, and the MIT Sloan E-Commerce Technology Innovator Award. Snyder is on the adjunct faculty of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management where he teaches a startup class using the Lean Startup methodology. He is the author of the highly acclaimed book, Leadership and the Art of Struggle. He has been a guest on the ABC-TV Nightline program, and has made several appearances on Bloomberg TV. A featured speaker in North America, Europe and Asia, Snyder’s work has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., and Entrepreneur. Snyder holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar.

Dr. Tanveer Syeda-Mahmood is the Chief Scientist leading IBM’s Medical Sieve Radiology Grand Challenge project in IBM Research. Medical Sieve is an exploratory research project to develop medical image analytics capabilities that will help clinicians in their diagnostic and treatment decision-making. Her work focuses on applications of content-based retrieval in healthcare and medical imaging, and she oversees a global team from IBM Research labs in San Jose, CA, Haifa, Israel and Melbourne, Australia.

Her 30 year career in artificial intelligence research includes discoveries in computer vision, image and video databases, medical image analysis, bioinformatics, signal processing, document analysis, and distributed computing frameworks. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and filed more than 80 patents. Prior to joining IBM in 1998, Dr. Syeda-Mahmood led the image indexing program at Xerox Research and was one of the early originators of the field of content-based image and video retrieval.

Dr. Syeda-Mahmood graduated from the MIT AI Lab in 1993 with a Ph.D in Computer Science.

Dr. Syeda-Mahmood is a Fellow of IEEE and was the General Chair of the First IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, Imaging, and Systems Biology in 2011. She was also the program co-chair of CVPR in 2008. At IBM, she is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, was declared an IBM Master Inventor in 2011, and this year she received the Best of IBM Award, one of IBM's highest honors.

Dr. Frazier is a licensed clinical psychologist who received his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 2004. He is currently the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Autism and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Dr. Frazier’s primary research interests are in improving early identification of autism and facilitating translational research studies. He is currently working on clinical studies to support commercialization of a product that uses remote eye gaze tracking to quantify risk for autism and track treatment progress.

Thomas J. Graham, MD, is the Chief Innovation Officer of Cleveland Clinic, the technology commercialization and corporate venturing arm of Cleveland Clinic, where he holds the Justice Family Chair in Medical Innovations. Additionally, Dr. Graham is the Vice-Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery of Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Graham has extensive clinical expertise in surgery of the hand, wrist and elbow with special concentration on complicated reconstruction after trauma, complex elbow disorders and congenital hand surgery. His practice is recognized as the premier destination for the care of the professional athlete’s hand and wrist, worldwide. As Chief Innovation Officer, Dr. Graham leverages his experience as a serial entrepreneur and one of the Clinic’s most prolific inventors to grow the success that Cleveland Clinic Innovations has established as a world leader in commercializing the creative thought of global academic innovators. Graham was responsible for establishing the Healthcare Innovation Alliance that promotes collaboration between Academic Medical Centers and Research Universities to develop technologies to improve and extend human life. Graham has chronicled Cleveland Clinic’s journey to primacy as an innovation crucible in an upcoming book, Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way: Powering & Practicing Mission-Driven Innovation (McGraw-Hill). In it, he details the pioneering work the institution has performed to establish the processes that yield breakthrough discovery that improves and extends human life, as well as stimulate community economic development. A graduate of Williams College, he received his M.D. from the University of Cincinnati. He completed his Orthopaedic Surgery Residency at the University of Michigan and a fellowship in Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery at the famed Indiana Hand Center, with additional training in Elbow Surgery at Mayo Clinic. He completed the two-year Executive Program in Healthcare Management, jointly sponsored by Cleveland Clinic and the Weatherhead School of Business of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Graham is involved in multiple civic initiatives and organizations, especially those which advance innovation, community health and economic development. These include his Chairmanship of the Executive Advisory Board for the Global Center for Health Innovation and BioEnterprise. Dr. Graham is married to his childhood sweetheart, CeCe, and they have two adult daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth. He enjoys golf, outdoor activities, travel and anatomic drawing.

Anthony 0. Caggiano, MD, PhD has been Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Acorda Therapeutics since November 2014. He previously served in various roles in the Preclinical and R&D departments since joining Acorda in 2001, directing basic research and product development efforts, coordinating external research efforts, collaborating in business development activities and leading early clinical studies. Dr. Caggiano has authored papers in neuro-inflammation, injury, recovery and cardiovascular disease, and has been the inventor or co-inventor on multiple Acorda technologies. He also served as chairman of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) neuropharmacology Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR) grants review committee. He led the research, preclinical development, manufacturing and/or early-phase clinical development on growth factor, antibody, enzyme and small molecule based therapeutics. He has successfully led multiple protein therapeutics from concept, through IND and into clinical trials and has been part of a team to gain FDA approval of a small molecule therapeutic now commercialized under the trade name Ampyra. Prior to joining Acorda, Dr. Caggiano co-founded Remote Diagnostic Imaging, a company that assembled an expert staff of radiologists to provide remote diagnostic services to understaffed hospitals. Dr. Caggiano received his undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies of biology, chemistry and psychology from University of Virginia, and his MD and PhD in neurobiology from the University of Chicago.

Vik Chandra is the founder and CEO of Muses Labs. Muses Labs offers a big-data and technology enabled Protocol that applies a combination therapy to address the multiple underlying drivers of Alzheimer’s disease in a personalized manner. Muses Labs’ Protocol is driven by a patient’s genome, blood chemistry imaging, and medical history and recommends a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. Based out of RTP, NC, Mr. Chandra has a deep background in technology and business. He has founded multiple innovative startups and is now applying his skills and energies to help solve Alzheimer’s disease.

Will is the Associate Chief Information Officer for the Cleveland Clinic. In addition to his clinical role as a Hospitalist within the Medicine Institute, he is a Clinical Assistant Professor for the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. In 2013, he co-published mHealth: Global Opportunities and Challenges, a book reviewing his work on mobile and distance health. Will earned his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and completed training in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.

Bill is a Partner on the Private Transactions team at Deerfield, which he joined in 2000. He began his professional career studying immune system complications associated with End Stage Renal Disease. Prior to joining Deerfield, Bill was a senior healthcare analyst between 1990 and 2000 at Amerindo Investment Advisors overseeing biotechnology investments. He has held various positions in research including those at National Medical Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson, and HMSS. Bill has degrees in Biology and Chemistry from State University of New York at Albany and completed coursework in Immunology at the Graduate School-New Brunswick, Rutgers University.

12/13/2014 PM360

Fostering Innovation—The Way Forward

World-renowned physician, inventor, and Cleveland Clinic Chief Innovations Officer, Dr. Thomas Graham spoke to PM360 just as he was excitedly gearing up for this pioneering non-profit academic medical center’s 2014 Annual Medical Innovation Summit, held in October. In this article, Dr. Graham addresses the challenges of innovation, Cleveland Clinic’s role as the leader in fostering healthcare’s next-generation solutions, the need for investment and collaboration, and the role that pharma marketers can play in helping to move innovation forward.

Medical Innovations and Life Changing Innovations in 2014

This is a time of incredible progress in medical science’s understanding of how to diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions. Here are our top four life-changing medical innovations that could revolutionize health care in 2015; they earned spots on the Cleveland Clinic’s ninth annual list of Top 10 Medical Innovations.

Blood Test Innovation: Less Cost, No Big Needle

Cleveland Clinic Innovations, an alliance partner of The Innovation Institute, introduced its top 10 "game changing" healthcare innovations for 2015. The list was determined by a panel of 110 Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists and released at the organization's annual Medical Innovation Summit last month.

Ringing In the New Year: Medical Breakthroughs Anticipated in 2015

As 2014 winds down, many of us are wondering what important medical innovations lie ahead in 2015. The Cleveland Clinic recently released its “Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2015.” Monthly Prescribing Reference has identified two additional breakthroughs on the horizon for next year.

Infographic: 10 Medical Innovations Transforming Healthcare in 2015

What medical innovations have the potential to improve patient care in 2015 and beyond? The following infographic illustrates Cleveland Clinic’s annual top 10 medical innovations that are likely to have a major impact on improving patient care in 2015.

Medical Innovations and Life-Changing Inventions for 2015

This is a time of incredible progress in medical science’s understanding of how to diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions. Here are our top four life-changing medical innovations that could revolutionize health care in 2015 — they earned spots on the Cleveland Clinic’s ninth annual list of Top 10 Medical Innovations.

Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2015

The Cleveland Clinic once again ended its Medical Innovation Summit with a list of 10 advancesvoted most likely to have a major impact on improving patient care in 2015. The 110 voting Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists share their excitement with Pharm Exec, as evidenced in November’s Pipeline Report, picking PCSK9 inhibitors for cholesterol reduction, immune checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapies and heart failure treatment angiotensin-receptor neprilysin inhibitor as numbers 4, 6 and 10 on their list.

Checkmating cancer with checkpoint inhibitors

Until recently, only 10 percent to 20 percent of people diagnosed with advanced melanoma — the deadliest of skin cancers — could expect to be alive in five years. Now, cutting-edge cancer drugs are unleashing the power of the human immune system against this and other tough-to-treat cancers. These new drugs are allowing the immune system to do the job it was designed to do: protect us from harmful disease.